Learning to Laugh
by Sunny Lighter
Summary: After running from a prank, Jack goes down a rabbit hole and finds a brand new world, and its protector. When Jack decides to become Alice's friend, neither realized the chain of events this would set in motion. But deep within Wonderland, an evil is about to break free, and Alice finds she'll need all the help she can get. Ice Tea, crossover with Guardians of Childhood later on
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

*~ There once was a boy who could make anyone smile. From his little sister, whom he adored, to the grouchiest curmudgeon in his village, who would deny it if ever asked. These smiles are what he prided himself in, and what he strove to achieve in his everyday life. He was careful never to take a joke to far, and made fun of himself more than others, so no one would be hurt and fun could be had. Everyday should be one to smile about, was what he thought. So he strove to make everyday fun for everyone. ~*

A~ There once was a girl who had a world all her own. When reality would bore her, she would slip away and find a looking glass, or a rabbit hole to make her escape to the place she'd created. All her friends there were wonderful and mad, and would take her on all sorts of adventures. When she shared her stories with her parents and older sister they would laugh the way grownups do, and comment on what a wild imagination she had. They never believed her. But they enjoyed hearing her stories all the same, so the girl kept telling them so they could share in the adventure. ~A

*~ One day the boy took his sister out for what should have been a fun day of ice-skating. But as fate would have it their fun was cut short with a loud crack. But the boy knew the best way to help his sister was to keep her smiling, so he got her to safety using their favorite game, making her laugh despite the danger. But then the ice shattered beneath his feet, and wiped the smile from her face. When he next awoke he found he had no memory of his past, a new name, and all the power of winter. He could no longer remember the people he cared for, nor the warmth of their smiles. ~*

A~ One day the girl got distracted from her world when her sister came to her in need of a confidant. Her sister confessed her troubles of a man pursuing her affections, though she had no care for him. The girl didn't fully know how to help her sister, but did her best to cheer her up with a game of pretend, which worked for a time. That night the girl awoke to a horror that would haunt her forever. Someone had started a fire in her house, and her parents were begging the sisters to flee. The girl escaped out a window and could only watch helplessly as everything she loved burned. Reflecting this, her beautiful world and its inhabitants became ravaged, and it was then she realized that madness was not always so wonderful. ~A

*~ The boy soon rediscovered his love for smiles and fun (though he did not recall ever losing it). However the thing that brought him joy was subdued, for upon his awakening he had found that no one in the world could see him. What was the use of spreading fun, if you couldn't join in? Despite this the boy continued to spread fun with his snowfalls, because a subdued joy was better than no joy at all. And maybe, just maybe, someday he would be seen too. ~*

A~ The girl fought, and fought, and fought again, through the ravaged world of her own creation. Reality had become unbearable, but her once beautiful safe haven could no longer provide much comfort. The only solace to be found was in the few inhabitants still loyal to her, and the dream that one day her world would be beautiful again. So she armed herself and fought back against the madness to make that dream come true. ~A

*~ The boy found that he craved companionship. This urge was discovered when he found that there were others like him out there in the world. But they were blind to his plight, and he did not know how to ask for help. So he did his best to gain their attention through tricks and mischief. In doing so he would sometimes do what he had meticulously tried not to do before, which is take a joke too far, and some feelings were hurt. And while this did catch their attention, it also cast him in a negative light in the eyes of others. They wrote him off as a hellion who was nothing but trouble, and did their best to ignore him further. Little did they know, all that the boy wanted was a friend. ~*

A~ The girl sought solitude from others. She rarely socialized, and when she did she kept all at arms length. As much as the girl longed for companionship, she knew the pain it would cause when those she loved left her behind. She also feared persecution from her peers for her troubled past and madness, knowing they could hurt her further for being so different than the rest. So she kept herself at a distance, feeling that loneliness was less sharp a pain then loss. ~A

*~ One day the boy was brought before others of his kind. They had found themselves in need of his help, and asked for his assistance in defending the children whom he loved to make smile. The boy was reluctant to agree, for even though he cared for the children, those asking for his assistance had never helped him before. Still he decided to try to help, and soon found himself gaining the friends he had longed for in all his years of solitude. However, when their enemy set a trap that made his new companions believe the worst about him, his heart nearly shattered from their betrayal. Despite his pain, he found he still cared for them, and recovered the lost memories of his past. He saved their lives and together they struck down their enemy. When all was said and done, his new friends apologized for their mistakes, and he found he could forgive them, and then his battered heart began to heal. ~*

A~ After much toil and suffering the girl found that her world was on the mend, and she gained the confidence to return to reality again. The world outside her own was harsh and unforgiving, but she was confident she could live her life there with some hard work. She was eventually put in the care of an orphanage. It was run by a doctor who seemed to have her best interests in mind. In hopes of escaping her past, she let the doctor into her precious world hoping that with his help it would heal faster, and she could be happy once again. But she soon found that the good doctor was not as good as he seemed. He tore her world apart, hoping to shape the girl into a being of his own design. And to her horror she found he had already done the same to the other children in her orphanage. The last straw broke when she discovered that it had been the doctor who set the fire that made both her worlds burn. His betrayal shattered her fragile trust, and she knew she could never forgive him. So to make sure he would never hurt another ever again, she ended him. Then the girl left the reality that had hurt her so much, and planed to never return. ~A

*~ While the boy now had the companionship he had so desired, he was perfectly open to more. It would do the boy a lot of good to have someone in his life that was able to keep him grounded. To show him when a joke had gone to far, and the times it was required to be serious. It would benefit him to have someone who knew the pains of loneliness and betrayal, to better keep him from being hurt as such again, and that for whom he could do the same. ~*

A~ Though the girl had rejected the reality that caused her pain for the world of her own creation, she was still haunted by her troubles and felt little joy. The girl had not laughed since that last game of pretend with her sister, nor had she given a true smile since the day she'd been released from her madness for the first time. Now her smiles were either faked to hide her emotions, or smirks of triumph when she overcomes a difficult foe. There is no happiness behind them, and though she loathes admitting it, she thinks it would be nice to truly smile again someday. ~A

A*~ There once was two youths who's hearts and minds were battered and bruised by the worlds they lived in, but they were never broken. What would happen should they ever meet? ~*A

*A*A*A*

A/N I know what some of you are thinking. Why am I writing something for the romance section, when I usually try to avoid it save for a few hints here or there.

I got the idea for this fic while talking to Scorpiofreak, who's writing the awesome fic **Winter Wonderland** (check it out if you get the chance, along with her other fics which are also super good). She's the one who got me hooked on the Ice Tea pairing so much, that it's one of the few pairings I actually care about. It's thanks to her I decided to try my hand at this fic, and it just took off from there. I really like the idea of Alice and Jack as a couple. I think they balance each other out really well, and their odd-coupley-ness amuses me to no end. However, the actual romance part isn't until much later, and there is plenty more to this story than that.

So read if this tickles your fancy. Don't if it doesn't. Either way please review, that's what makes writing this worth while.

_Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood book series or the American McGee's Alice series. Rise of the Guardians is owned by William Joyce, and Dreamworks. The American McGee's Alice series is owned by American McGee, and Spicy Horse. I am just a crossover obsessed fangirl with too much time on her hands (it's summer, what do you expect), and a real love for this ship. _


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**"FROST!" **came the yell that echoed around the Easter Bunny's Warren.

Jack Frost the Spirit of Winter and Guardian of Fun swooped between a pair of egg sentinels laughing his head off. He had just witnessed the end results of his latest prank on his fellow Guardian, E. Aster Bunnymund (Bunny for short), and was now running for his life to avoid the Pooka's vengeance.

He'd gotten the idea for the prank from North a few days ago. He'd managed to talk North into telling him how he had met his fellow Guardians all those centuries ago. Nicolas St. North had been more than happy to fill Jack in on his old days as a bandit, before finding the enchanted village of Santoff Claussen under attack by Pitch Black, thus putting him on his journey to becoming a Guardian.

Jack had been captivated by the story (though he had a hard time picturing jolly old North as a cold-hearted Cossack) until North reached the description of his first meeting with Bunny.

"_Wait, Brown? Robe?" Jack had asked raising one of his eyebrows at North. _

_North gave a deep belly laugh. "Ho ho, yes. As Tooth said, ve vere all different before ve became who ve are today. Vhen I first met Bunny, hes fur vas brown, and he wore this green robe like outfit vith egg shaped pockets and buttons and egg shaped eyeglasses on his face." North's eyes twinkled in amusement as he recalled his first meeting with his friend. "He also acted much different back then as vell."_

_"How so?" asked Jack, still trying to picture a brown furred version of Bunny in the clothes North described, and chuckling at what he conjured up._

_"You complain he is uptight now," said North merrily, "but you did not know him as he once vas. Compared to that, our Bunny is very laid back, and much less, shall ve say, odd."_

_"He's a talking Kangaroo with a basket of pastel painted eggs. How can he be weirder than that?" Asked Jack, sensing a story behind those words._

_North gave Jack a wide grin. "Let's just say, he has good reason to not wish to talk about his early Guardian personality." _

The Christmas Giver had then delighted in telling Jack all about how Bunny used to be, which had sent Jack howling with laughter, and inspiring his latest prank.

Jack glanced back to look at his handy work. He'd done his best to make Bunny look like he used too based on North's description of his early days. Borrowing some of Bunny's own egg dye he had turned the Pooka's fur brown and dressed him in a green robe and glasses he'd gotten from a costume store while Bunny had been asleep via dream sand (courtesy of Sandy, who had wanted pictures of the result).

The robe was giving Bunny trouble in his chase to catch the winter spirit, as the once grey rabbit was trying to kick it off as he ran after his teammate. The glasses had been discarded long before.

Jack, knowing the Guardian of Hope would be hot on his tail once the robe was off, ducked into a random tunnel and bolted for what he hoped was the surface of somewhere that wasn't the Warren.

Bunny finally escaped the tangled robe, all the while muttering death threats towards Jack, as well as North for no doubt telling the boy about it. He then darted into the tunnel he'd seen Jack go into. He ran pell-mell down the tunnel until he reached a section where the tunnels branched out into all directions.

"Where are you, ya bloody Snowflake!" he yelled, glancing at all the tunnels trying to figure out which one the winter spirit might have taken.

He kept his ears pricked for the sound of Jack's laughter, and looked at all of the tunnels for a hint of footprints or frost, any sign as to which direction Jack had taken.

Seeing nothing he frowned. "Get out here Jack!" he yelled loudly. He crept closer to the entrances of the tunnels testing if any were colder than the others, while maintaining caution in case Jack planned to pop out with a snowball.

Finding nothing he went back to glaring at each of the entrances as he yelled again for Jack.

"You _really_ shouldn't be messing around in my tunnels!" He called. "Ya neva know where ya might end up! Even I don't know where all of them go!"

His only answer was silence.

Bunny sighed in exasperation and turned to make his way back to the Warren. He needed to get a bath and wash the dye out of his fur. He figure he just have to wait till the next time he saw Jack to rip him a new one.

Meanwhile Jack heard every word from down the tunnel he'd chosen. He didn't think much of Bunny's warning, and continued to fly along it. No matter where he ended up he was confident he could find his way home by flying on the winds.

As if summoned by these thoughts he spotted an opening out just ahead. He grinned and raced through it and out into the open air, only to stop short at the sight before him.

Bathed in a yellowish green glow of smog-polluted clouds was the strangest looking factory he had ever seen. He called it a factory, because what else could it be? The whole structure seemed to be floating in midair not far off the cliff Jack was standing on. The buildings were all metal and most were shaped like teapots with gears and clocks attached at every place it was possible to attach them to, and even in some places that weren't. Even from a distance he could hear the banging and clanging of the factory doing its work, whatever that work was.

Jack glanced around at the rest of the area around him. Behind him looked to be a village made from giant teacups, pots, and gears nestled into the rocky terrain. Though he couldn't see any inhabitants there.

He glanced back down at the tunnel he just come out of, half hoping Bunny would show up and explain the strange place he'd just found. But the Pooka never made an appearance, and Jack was left to wonder where the heck he'd ended up.

"I guess this is one of those 'I don't know where they lead' tunnels," he muttered to himself looking around again.

Seeing nothing familiar, and getting more curious by the minute Jack finally decided that since he was here he might as well take a look around. The tunnel didn't seem to be going anywhere, so he could always come back.

He was completely unaware that his every movement was being watched by a pair of glowing yellow eyes accompanied by a bloodstained grin. Nor did he see when they faded away as though they had never been there.

*A*A*A*

Alice Liddell was having an ordinary day (or as close to ordinary as one can get in Wonderland). She had beaten up some Madcaps that had gotten too rowdy, had once again been stuck doing favors for Carpenter and the Mock Turtle, and had sliced through some of the few remaining Ruin forces that still plagued her Wonderland to this day (though they were getting much rarer with each fight). All she had left to do was check on one final thing before she was done for the day.

With practiced ease she maneuvered her way through the Dollhouse section of Wonderland. Though she had done this so many times before, the area still made her very uneasy. It was by far her most hated section of her world, trumping even Queensland in disfavor.

But it had to be done, so she squared her shoulders and marched on till she reached the center of the section, where the twisted and rusted remains of the Infernal Train still sat in a blacked heap from when she had derailed it.

As she took in the sight she had to suppress a shudder that threatened to creep through her. It would not do to show any form of weakness, especially not here.

Creeping slowly up to the heap, she climbed up to the top and peered through a small hole in the train's exterior. As if sensing her presence the prisoner contained in the heap looked up at her with his empty dripping eyes.

Like all the inhabitants of Wonderland, the Dollmaker could never truly be killed forever. Even if Alice struck him down in the most brutal of fashions (which she had been tempted to do more than once), he would simply re-spawn later on and plan his vengeance.

So as much as she hated him and wanted to give him and agonizing death, it would be better to keep him locked away in a place she knew where he was, rather than kill him, and let him come back and plot where she couldn't stop him.

So now the Dollmaker was her prisoner, trapped in the remains of the very train he once attempted to use to destroy her. She considered this ironic justice.

The Dollmaker eventually looked away from her with disinterest. A fact that irked Alice, but it was not like there was much else he could do.

Inside the train all his limbs were pined under heaps of metal that had been molten when they'd gone in, and had long since cooled and fused into place keeping him from moving an inch. And even if he did move that inch he would be stuck with the jagged bits of metal that aligned the wall of the prison. None of them would dig deep enough to kill him, but they would cause great pain. And finally, the Dollmaker had been rendered unable to speak long ago, when his goading of Alice had led her into a fit of temper, causing her to fire off all her long-range weapons solely at his face. This resulted in the Dollmaker's mouth being so badly damaged he had not uttered a sound since, much to Alice's relief.

Satisfied that her prisoner was no more likely to escape then he was the last time she had come by, Alice jumped down off the train and made her way back out of this retched domain.

She had few worries of any of the other inhabitants of Wonderland coming and trying to free him. All the Wonderlandians hated him nearly as much as Alice herself for trying to destroy them all. And no one wished to face Alice's wrath for assisting him. They knew if they did there would be no mercy. Still it was always safer to be cautious, which was why she always returned to check he was still in his cage.

She was half way out when she caught sight of the Cheshire Cat grinning down at her from the upper level of one of the many smashed dollhouses that littered that section of Wonderland.

She sighed, knowing she was about to walk right into one of his cryptic messes of a message, but still she said, "Yes, Cat? What is it?"

"While stopping by the Hatter's Domain, I happened to see an odd patch of winter blow though." He said with his usual wicked grin.

Alice rolled her eyes. Cryptic as ever, but the Cat was one of her most loyal and trusted companions, so she was willing to listen regardless. "Did Hatter lose control of one of his cooling snow globes?" she asked, continuing on her way.

"It was not any winter that originated from Wonderland." He said as he faded away. His work there was done.

Alice froze in mid step as that sunk in. It had been years since anything not originally from Wonderland had come to her world. She immediately began jogging in the direction of the Hatter's Domain. Whatever or whoever had shown up she would deal with it accordingly.

*A*A*A*

A/N And the story begins. A lot of foreshadowing in this chapter if anyone cares to look for it, it's not like it'll be hard to spot. Next chapter we see what kind of trouble Jack gets into in the Hatter's domain

Comments and criticism are welcome.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing_


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The more Jack saw of this new place the more confused he became. After walking across the chasm between him and the factory, via the cable car line, he was quick to look around it.

He didn't go into many of the buildings. The whole area around the factory was warmer than he was used too, and the heat radiating from most of the buildings would be unbearable if he was inside too long. However he could see inside of the factory from the numerous holes in the walls. From what he could tell, the insides were just as strange as the out. All of it was made of metal with gears, teapots, and teacups everywhere, and the occasional room full of molten tea with a giant snow globe set above it. The air on the outside was choked in yellowish green smog, with even more gears and giant teacups and pots floating around it.

Still, for all it's strangeness Jack was fascinated by this new place he'd found. It was like nothing he'd ever seen, and he was eager to see more of it.

The only downside was that the wind was not cooperating with him as it usually did. While it still let him fly around it was shakier than usual. Jack could sense confusion coming from it, as if it was wondering who he was, and why he was there.

Jack chalked the wind's confusion up to the pollution in the air from the factory and thought nothing of it. Such things had happened before in very polluted areas. Thankfully, the factory was riddled with steam vents, both hot and cold, that were just the push he needed to keep in the air when the wind got confused. So he continued on his way, even with the wind's sudden change.

After flying past a swarm of fireflies that had light bulbs for lights, he came to rest on top of a giant clock face set into the top of the building in the center of the factory. He was careful not to get to close to the center of the clock, because for some reason there was a large hole in center, as if something had broken through it.

Glancing around at his surrounding area he tried to decide where to explore next.

"Let's see," he muttered to himself, a habit he'd picked up in his years alone. Looking off to one side of the building he read the sign across the top. "**Smelling & Regurgitation**," he read aloud. He then wrinkled his nose at the stench from the teapot shaped building that looked slightly melted. "Yeah, I can smell it from here."

He turned and looked the opposite way. "**Cranking Up & Pressing Down**. Well that tells me absolutely nothing." From the loud banging he could hear coming from the building, he thought it sounded like the only thing productive they were doing there was making a lot of noise.

Doing a quarter turn he looked at the last building in the distance. "**Assemblage or Destruction as Required**?" he read with amusement. "Well that sounds like the most likely place to find someone here."

With that he took off in the direction of the third building to continue his exploration, hopping along the floating gears, and occasional silverware that floated between him and the building.

Upon reaching it, he found it was just as hot as the others, but he figured he could handle it for a quick look around. Like all the other buildings there were a lot of holes in the walls. He flew though one and began to make his way through the odd assortment of gear doors and rooms full of broken metal.

Eventually he came a catwalk over a room where the floor below was covered in a pool with hot tea, with hooks and other equipment hanging from the ceiling. Farther along, where the catwalk expanded to a large platform sat one of the strangest sights Jack had seen since coming to that place.

On the platform was a long crooked table with several chairs positioned around it, as if expecting more people to show up. Piled on the table were teapots of all shapes and sizes all with steam billowing from their spouts. Along with the teapots were several melted-looking cakes, moldy finger sandwiches, and stale cookies, set onto plates that were all in some way cracked, chipped, or outright shattered, accompanied by several teacups and silverware in a similar condition.

The occupants of the table were just as strange and hodge-podge as its contents. There were only three, and they were all yelling at each other at the top of their lungs and pelting each other with rusted silverware.

One looked like a giant version of those wind-up mice with wheels that Jack had seen cats play with. Only this one had blood red eyes, had a bell on his head like a hat, and the area where the wheels attached was scarred and raw.

Next to him was what looked like a mecha rabbit. He wasn't quite as big as Bunny, and he had brown fur, metal legs, one arm that looked like a clock hand, and he wore a strange monocle on one eye. He was also yelling in a thick Scottish accent, which made Jack vaguely wonder if all giant rabbits had weird accents, or was it just the ones he met.

Both of the mecha animals were heavily chained to their chairs, and seemed to have teamed up to chuck cutlery at the table's third occupant, who was as strange as they were.

He looked a bit like a hunched man with a large gear sticking out of his back. He had a very big nose, greenish skin, and crooked teeth. He wore a suit that looked like it had been made out of a straitjacket, and wore a very tall top hat on his head. Unlike the other two, the man wasn't chained to his chair, and was allowed to pace up and down the table, refilling his guests cups with tea, and yelling obesities back at them while he dodged their silverware.

None of them seemed to see Jack, which led him to think he might be just as invisible to them as he was to unbelievers. A bit disappointed by that thought, he slowly made his way closer to the action to get a better look. He couldn't shake the feeling that this scene was familiar somehow, but couldn't place where just yet.

However the invisible theory was debunked as the man suddenly looked directly at him, and chucked a cup of boiling tea at his head.

"You're late for _TEA_!" The man yelled hotly in a British accent. He then squinted and took a better look at Jack, who had stopped dead in his tracks at being noticed. Fortunately the cup of tea flew harmlessly past his head.

"Wait who are you? Get away, you're not invited!" the man scoffed, before turning back to his guests, both of whom were now looking over at Jack with interest.

"Who's he?" asked the mouse.

"Never seen him before," said the rabbit (though, now that Jack was getting a closer look at him, he thought the rabbit looked more like a hare).

"Who cares!" snapped the man. "He's not invited. Now it's time for tea. Drink, drink." The man shoved two steaming cups of tea into the two's hands, and promptly had to duck as they threw the cups back at him, thus starting their war anew.

Jack snickered at the absurdity of it all, and cautiously came a little closer, and was content to watch them for a while. The three did their best to ignore him, focusing more on each other than him.

Finally, he couldn't help but voice the question that had been on his mind since he first came upon the scene. "So why are you two chained up?"

That got all three of their attention focused back on him.

"None of your business, laddie," snapped the hare.

"None at all, none at all," agreed the mouse.

"Ha, your business is everyone's business," snapped the man. "Being that you have no business anymore, or ever again, maybe." The man then turned to Jack as and he said, "These two bad mannered guests are getting their just desserts for horrendous and un-tea worthy crimes."

Jack cocked his head in confusion. "What crimes?" he asked, amused by the man's description of it.

"Oh the worst kinds," the man cackled. "Hostile takeover, the building of that confounded contraption, siding with _HIM _to make it. And worst of all, leaving me _**Tealess!**__"_

"Oh, don't you start," yelled the mouse. "It's not like you're without fault."

"Did this to us, he did," said the hare, gesturing as best he could at his metal parts. "Took us apart, and put us back all wrong. Tried to do the same to others. Tried to do the same to Alice, but she set him strait."

"Alice?" asked Jack, his eyes widening. He finally realized why this scene seemed so familiar, and began to get an idea on just where he was.

Misinterpreting the reason of his surprise, the Door Mouse nodded. "That's right. He's not off the hook for that yet. Still on probation he is."

"And that is being served out keeping you two in line, strait and narrow," snapped the Mad Hatter angrily, not liking where the conversation had gone. He picked up a cane with a teapot on the top and whacked both prisoners on the head, before rounding on Jack.

"And you," he accused, stalking towards the winter spirit, causing Jack to back up to in alarm. "Didn't I tell you you were not invited? Be gone! In fact, I'll help you with that."

The Hatter swung his cane and knocked Jack off the edge of the platform (which he had not realized he had backed up too). Jack was so startled by this he couldn't have the wind catch him in time, and he began hurtling towards the pool of hot tea below the platform.

Since even before recovering his memories, Jack had always had an irrational fear of deep water, and avoided it whenever possible. Discovering his past only shed light on the cause of that fear. Because of that, the idea of falling into a who-knows-how-deep pool of boiling tea caused most rational thinking to fly from his head, and he reacted instinctively.

On the platform, Hatter had just turned back to his guests when a flash of white erupted behind him. All of a sudden the air turned frigid, and everything got covered in a layer of ice. From the tea in his teapots, to the tea pouring from vats in the ceiling into the pool below. All became frozen solid, and snow began falling from the ceiling.

He ran back to the edge of the platform, and looked down to where he'd knocked Jack off. Below him, Jack pulled himself out of the pile of snow he'd summoned to break his fall, and glared back up at the Hatter.

The Hatter shook one of his now frozen pots of tea at Jack. "You miserable, uncouth, slip of a snow cone. Look at what you've done to my tea!"

The Hatter threw the frozen pot at Jack's head, this time with much more accuracy than last, and Jack had to duck to avoid getting a concussion.

The Hatter continued to throw heavy things at Jack, swearing profanities as he did so. But Jack wasn't like Hatter's prisoners, and he wasn't about to just sit back and take the madman's abuse.

After dodging another teapot, Jack took aim and fired an icy blast from his staff. This hit the Hatter in the gut, and sent him flying back.

Jack flew back up to the platform to see his handiwork.

The March Hare and the Door Mouse were both laughing uproariously at the Hatter, who now lay frozen in a chunk of ice on the table. The only thing unfrozen was his head, and the madman was currently cursing Jacks existence in several creative (if a bit rambled and confused) ways.

Jack let out a sigh of relief that that was over with. Feeling he had overstayed his welcome, Jack turned to leave, only to stop short.

Looking cross-eyed down his nose, he saw a very large glowing ornate butcher knife pointed right in his face. And following the knife to its wielder, he found himself staring into the green eyes of an enraged girl.

"Who are you?" she demanded, "And what are you doing in my Wonderland?"

*A*A*A*

A/N Typical Jack causing trouble, but then the Hatter was asking for it. Let me know if I was off on anything. Alice and Jack's first meeting in the next chapter.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing_


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Who are you?" the girl holding the knife demanded. "And what are you doing in my Wonderland?"

Jack looked the girl over before replying. By saying it was her Wonderland that meant she was most likely one of two people who could make such a claim. And since she didn't have any red or hearts on her, she could only be Alice.

Jack knew the story fairly well thanks to Cupcake. Her youth theater group had cast her as the Queen of Hearts in the play version of the story, and Cupcake had insisted that she and all her friends (including Jack) watch every Alice in Wonderland movie she could get her hands on so she could research her role. The girl had practiced her 'Off With Their Heads!' line for weeks.

In most of the media versions of Alice, she was portrayed as a young blond girl in a blue dress and apron. The girl in front of did not match that description at all. She was a teenager about the same height as him, dressed in an all-black steampunk style dress, and black knee high boots with several buckles. She had long dark hair, and angry green eyes that contrasted with her pale skin.

Despite the knife she had in his face he grinned at her. Why make enemies when you could make friends? "You don't look much like what I'd expected you to look like," he said in a friendly and disarming manner.

Alice was so startled by that response that she lowered the Vorpal Blade just a tad. It was no longer pointed directly at the intruder's face, but was still aimed at his chest should she need to stab him.

If she was perfectly honest with herself, he was not what she had been expecting either. When she'd heard there was something new in Wonderland she had thought it would be some new peril to overcome.

She did not think it would be a skinny, tatty-dressed, teenage, shepherd boy who looked like he had been bathed in bleach. One who greeted her with friendly smiles, and nonsense remarks in a Yank accent. While the boy before her was clearly not normal from his icy pale skin, to the frost that decorated he neck and cuffs of his strange blue shirt, he was clearly not of Wonderland origin. He wasn't nearly strange enough or mad enough to be from there.

Still, she'd gotten there in time to see him dispatch the Hatter (though, the fool had been asking for it), so clearly he could still pose a threat. No matter how friendly he seemed.

She glared at him and said, "That does nothing to answer my question. What are you doing in my Wonderland? I shall not ask again." She held her knife closer to his heart for emphasis.

The pale boy took a step back and raised one of his hands disarmingly, the other still clutching his staff. "Whoa, whoa, Sorry. I didn't mean to come here, honest. I took a wrong turn in one of the Warren's tunnels, and came here by accident. And once I got here I didn't think it'd hurt to take a look around. I didn't mean any harm, and I only froze that guy after he attacked me first."

She raised an eyebrow at his ludicrous response. "A warren? What were you doing in a rabbit's hole?"

He shrugged, and took another step back so that he was out of the knife's range unless Alice lunged forward. "The Bunny who made them is a friend of mine," he said simply.

Alice was rethinking her earlier conclusion that he might not be mad enough for Wonderland. But still it did explain how he could have gotten here. Down a rabbit's hole is one of the few ways into Wonderland.

But no matter how he got here, the fact that he was intruding on her Wonderland, and that was inexcusable. Who knows what sort of havoc he could cause. Alice knew she would find out exactly where and how he got in, and then she wanted him out.

However before she could continue her line of inquiry, the Hatter decided to cut in.

"You miserable, malicious, moronic, maggot, can go right back down the dark pit you crawled out of and-!"

Whatever the Hatter had been going to say next was cut off. The boy seemed to have decided he'd had enough of the Hatter's rambling, and had created a snowball in his hand and thrown it at the mad man with great accuracy. The snowball had become lodged in the Hatter's mouth, stopping his rant in its tracks.

This set the March Hare and Door Mouse into another frenzy of laughter, and to Alice's surprise she felt her lips twitch a the sheer hilarity of the scene the Hatter currently made. She quickly schooled her expression, and shot the boy a pointed glare.

Seeing it he gave a sheepish shrug. "What, it shut him up didn't it. Besides, all this ice will melt within the hour. Especially with how hot it is around here."

She gave him a searching look, but grudgingly conceded his point. "Then it would be best if you are far away from him when that happens."

He flinched at the thought. "Good point."

He began making his way towards the exit, and Alice followed him. While this strange boy didn't seem hostile at the moment, she was not about to let her guard down.

"You never answered my first question, boy," she said sharply as they left the room. "Who are you?"

The boy turned to her and gave her a bright grin. "Oh, right, sorry. My name is Jack Frost. It's nice to meet you, Alice."

Jack had to admit; the surprised look on Alice's face was priceless. Thus far, the only expression he'd seen her make was a disapproving scowl that let him know she was a person who took things _way_ too seriously. Seeing a new expression on her face was refreshing. He floated backwards ahead of her to get a good look, as they picked their way back through the factory to get out.

"Jack Frost?" she asked, startled. "You look much too young to be Old Man Winter."

Jack made a face at that remark, but was still relived she had at least heard of him. "Yeah, no idea who gave me that title, but I'd like to meet them and give them snowball to the face. But still, I am over three hundred years old, so I guess the Old Man part is a matter of opinion."

Alice gave him a disbelieving look, before rolling her eyes.

Jack grinned and continued to float backwards until he ran headfirst into a wall. He let out a yelp of pain when his head collided with the metal, and he fell to the ground. Groaning, he sat up and rubbed his head before giving the wall a dirty look for being in his way.

When he glanced back at Alice he was certain he saw her lips twitch in amusement, before going back to the scowl she had been wearing almost the entire time he'd seen her.

Jack took this as a challenge.

There were few things that Jack Frost took seriously. In fact the list could be counted on one hand. His duties as a Winter Spirit and Guardian among them, as well as keeping children from danger, and snowball fights. However since discovering his center and past there was something else he started to take more seriously, the spreading of joy and fun. And meeting someone who was as serious as Alice seemed to be, he couldn't help but want to see if he could make her laugh.

And so the game began.

As they went the rest of the way out of the factory, Jack filled the air with chatter, sharing some of his more amusing adventures and mishaps to see what got a reaction out of her.

Alice for the most part kept silent, and seemed to ignore him as she picked her way through the tea and metal death trap. But she didn't tell him to shut up, so he considered that a something at least.

When they reached the area where the cable car was supposed to be, Jack found himself pausing in mid sentence.

The cable car looked like it had crashed upon entrance to the factory, and now lay in a smoking heap of rubble. He was now very glad he'd chosen to walk on the cables rather than use said car if it was going to do that.

He glanced over at Alice, who was glaring at the heap as if it had insulted her.

"What happened?" he asked.

She huffed and said, "The cable car always crashes on impact when I come here. Hatter then fixes it, only for it to crash again. I believe he hopes to kill me with it one day."

Jack found it more than a little disturbing that she was talking about someone plotting her death like it was the weather.

"Would you like me to fly you back across?" he offered.

Far from being grateful, she glared at him for the offer. "I can do it myself, thanks," she said sharply. "And don't even think about going ahead of me. I wish to see this rabbit hole you came here through."

She then climbed up the heap until she could reach the two cables that ran parallel to each other and climbed up on to the lower one, using the upper one to hold onto. She then began to shuffle sideways back across the bottomless chasm.

Jack shook his head in bemusement. Then he hopped onto the upper cable, and walked along it behind her. Being careful not to frost the part Alice was holding on too.

They were silent as they slowly made their way across. Jack didn't want to distract the girl in front of him and make her fall, and Alice seemed content to make her way in silence.

As they neared the other edge, Alice suddenly jumped from the cables.

Startled, Jack was about to jump after her, but instead he saw her floating on ahead of him to the cliff with a flurry of butterflies swirling around her.

Giving an appreciative whistle, he jumped after her and flew to the cliff edge.

Once he landed, he noticed that Alice had gone through a wardrobe change. The steampunk dress had been replaced by a simple royal blue frock and white apron (though he was slightly disturbed by the bloodstains that were splattered near the aprons pockets). She still wore the same boots over her now black and white striped stockings.

He grinned. "Now you look more like an Alice."

She glowered at him. "What is that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

He gave her an innocent grin, which only served to irritate her more. However he stopped when he saw her hand twitch towards apron pocket where she'd stored her knife.

Giving a nervous chuckle, he said, "Come on the hole is this way."

He led the way to the rabbit hole he'd used to come to Wonderland, where it was hidden just out of sight behind some rocks.

Alice bent over and examined the hole, before straitening up. "It's awfully big, but it was definitely made by a rabbit," she concluded. "I suppose your story was true then."

"Actually it was made by a Pooka, but close enough," said Jack flippantly.

"A what?" she asked, bewildered. Then she turned stern, and pointed at the hole. "No matter, it is time for you to be on your way, Frost. You have long overstayed your welcome."

Jack blinked at that abrupt dismissal. "Er, okay, I guess I'll be going then."

He turned to leave, but before he could go he spotted something in Alice's eyes. For the briefest of moments he saw a flash of loneliness in her eyes, and loneliness was something he was very familiar with, and wouldn't wish on anyone.

Alice lived in Wonderland, a world full of the insane, and deluded. How long had it been since she'd had a descent conversation with someone who was even halfway sane?

With that realization, Jack got a new idea and jumped on it.

"I'll come back to visit sometime soon," he said cheerfully. "When I do, I'll tell you what a Pooka is. I promise."

He then dove down the hole before Alice could reply.

*A*A*A*

Alice was once again startled by Frost's abrupt statement. Then the boy darted down the rabbit hole before she could rebuke his offer.

She fumed as she glared into the darkness where the boy had disappeared, but she did not call after him. She was also trying to make sense of the churning feelings inside her. Frost had seemed harmless enough, and if nothing else he was new and interesting. However, letting people from the outside world into her Wonderland was just asking for trouble, and she had had plenty of that to last a lifetime. But niggling in the back of her mind was the question, did she really want him to never come back.

"You could always seal up the entrance, if you do so wish for him to never return," said a voice behind her.

She turned to see the Cheshire Cat fade into existence behind her.

"I know that, Cat," she snapped. "I was simply considering the best way to go about it. Unless you believe he should be allowed to return. Do you think Frost is a threat?"

The Cat looked smug. "That boy is as foolish and careless as any imp could be, but it seems he means no harm for the moment. On the contrary, he was nearly the cause of the closest thing to a genuine smile from you in years, twice. Who knows what further scandal could happen should he return. Still, it could be best to err on the side of caution, but the choice is up to you."

With that said the Cat disappeared, leaving Alice to her thoughts. Eventually she left to see if the Hatter had defrosted yet.

She left the tunnel untouched.

*A*A*A*

And there you have the first meeting between Alice and Jack. I don't do love at first sight. It's a cute concept, but I have my doubts of it really happening. I want the two of them to be friends first and foremost, then things develop from there.

Special thanks to Scorpiofreak for beta reading this chapter.

Don't forget to review.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing_


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

E. Aster Bunnymund was in a very bad mood. His Warren had been _infested_. There was no other word for it, and he was having a very hard time getting the pest to stay out.

A week after Frostbite's last prank he'd been spending every spare moment sneaking back into Bunny's Warren to search his tunnels, and it was driving the Pooka up the wall. He was certain Jack was scouting the tunnels for some new prank. Despite the fact every time he came he caused almost no damage to the Warren thus far.

Speak of the devil. A flash of white out of the corner of his eye let him know that his intruder was once again in his home. He saw the winter spirit duck down a tunnel at the edge of the Warren. Grumbling, Bunny took off after him to throw him out, again.

He caught up to Jack as the boy was pacing in front of a fork in his tunnels, trying to decide which way to go.

"I'm starting to think yer a glutton fer punishment, mate," Bunny said as he caught up to him.

Jack didn't even look up at him, and continued to tap his chin with his staff as he mulled over which turn to take.

"Oi, Frostbite, I'm talking to you," said Bunny, grabbing Jack's shoulder and forcing him to turn and face him.

From the surprised look on Jack's face he hadn't even realized Bunny had shown up. "Oh, sorry Kangaroo," he said distractedly.

Bunny gave an exasperated sigh. He had a feeling he was going to regret what he was about to do, but MiM help him, he was going to ask anyway.

"Just tell me what this is all about, mate. If this is so important that you keep coming back, maybe I can help," he offered, reluctantly. If getting whatever it was out of Jack's system would keep him from messing around the Warren, then he might as well get it over with.

Jack actually paid attention to him now, and his face broke into a wide grin. "Really? That'd be great!" he said. "Could you show me the way I went when I was running away from you after that last prank."

Bunny's eye twitched a bit in annoyance at the mention of that prank. He'd dunked Jack into one of his egg dye rivers the first time he'd caught the winter spirit back in his tunnels after that in retribution. Not that being pastel pink for a week had discouraged Jack from sneaking back in time and again.

"I'd like a reason as too why?" asked Bunny. If he was going to walk right into this, he might as well do it prepared. "As in why is this so important to you? I'm not about to help you cause more trouble."

Jack gave him a mock innocent look, before chuckling. "It's nothing like that. It's just… When I was escaping into the tunnels, I went out a random exit and I met this girl. She could see, me and I could tell she was lonely so I promised her I'd come back to visit. But I've been having trouble finding my way back. And I have to use the tunnels 'cause I'm pretty sure I'd have an even harder time getting back otherwise"

Bunny felt his ears lay back at the tone Jack's voice took when he described his new friend as lonely. This was not what he'd been expecting at all. One of the biggest regrets of him and the other Guardians was ignoring Jack for so long. Especially once he and the others started to really get to know the winter spirit, annoying though he was at times, he was a good friend to have. May as well start making up for past mistakes now.

Bunny jerked his head back towards the center of the Warren and said, "C'mon, mate. I'll show you the way."

Jack eagerly hurried after him, and Bunny led him to where he'd lost Jack's trail during his harrowing escape.

"I know ya took a turn 'round here," he said, walking ahead of Jack and glancing down one of the tunnels, "but I don't know which way-"

"It's this way!" exclaimed Jack excitedly behind him. "Thanks, Bunny!"

There was a rush of wind, and when Bunny turned around Jack was already gone. Leaving him alone with no idea which way the boy had gone.

"Bugger," Bunny said to the now empty tunnel.

*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*A*

Jack flew through the tunnel he'd recognized as the one that had taken him to Wonderland before. It had been a month since he had left, and he was eager to go back and see more of that mad world, and more importantly, see Alice again. He was not a spirit who breaks his promises.

When he saw the exit, he approached it more carefully this time. If there was one thing he'd learned from his last escapade there, it was that Wonderland was not as friendly as the movies and books (which he had read after returning to Burgess) would lead him to believe.

He poked his head out and paused. This was not the same scenery from his last visit.

He climbed out and took a better look around. The rabbit hole was tucked in a corner inside a large stonewall. Above the wall appeared to be an inky black sky, but what really caught his attention was the building that the wall surrounded.

It was a tall decrepit looking stone building, at least three stories tall (though it was hard to tell for sure, as the entire building seemed warped and lopsided), with a bell tower at the top. But what really made it stand out was the fact that the building was rocking back and forth before him making a loud creek with each sway. A metal sign above the busted front door read **SKOOL**.

"Okay," Jack muttered to himself. "Not where I was before, but it could still be Wonderland."

Deciding to look around, Jack discovered that the only apparent entrance was an open window on the second story. Flying though it, Jack began to look around.

It soon became clear to Jack that the inside of the building was definitely bigger than the outside (and also if he wasn't in Wonderland, he'd put money on him being in the Twilight Zone). The inside of the skool was difficult to navigate. If you entered one door on the second floor you could find yourself coming out on the third, and vise versa. Other rooms led to debris floating around a bottomless pit surrounded by stacks of books. There were some rooms that seemed almost normal. A green house, a theater, and a chemistry lab all looked like warped and old-fashioned versions of ones Jack had seen in schools. Other rooms, like the Gym, were death traps, Jack made sure to steer clear of them.

Eventually Jack found his way into the huge library (which Jack was certain could fit the whole outside of the building inside it) that the Skool had, when he heard a soft noise.

Up until then, the Skool had seemed deserted. But now Jack was certain he heard whispering around him coming from behind the bookshelves.

He held his staff ready in case he needed you use it and called, "Come out, I won't hurt you."

"That's what they always say," came a young girl's voice from behind the bookshelves. "But they're always lyin' to us."

"Well, I'm different," said Jack cautiously, but he lowered his guard a bit when he heard the voice. He would rather not have to fight against a child. If it came down to it, he would run.

"Too right you are," said the girl's voice. "But is it a good different, or a bad different? We'll be the judges of that."

"What's your name," Jack asked, glancing around to try and pinpoint where the voice was coming from. "Mine's Jack Frost, Winter Spirit, Childhood Guardian of Fun, and record holder for Santa's Naughty list."

This set off a frenzy of whispers, as the girl and her friends (who all sounded like they were as young as she was) spoke amongst themselves about his claim.

Then, cautiously, a small figure stepped out from behind a bookcase. She looked like she was about as tall as his hip, with messy brown hair and green eyes. She was wearing a bloodstained nightgown, and she was clutching a ragged teddy bear. But it was her face that caught Jack's attention and horror the most. There was a long jagged scar across her forehead, as well as on her cheeks by the corners of her mouth and around her eyes.

"The other's call me Leader," said the girl, still eyeing him suspiciously, but spoke with determination. "We don't really have names, so we're called by what is different. I'm smartest, so the rest follow me. I won't let them be hurt again."

Jack knelt down and placed his staff on the ground as a peace offering. Then he slowly held out his hand to shake hers, but waited till she filled the gap. "I'm sorry that you were hurt, but I promise I won't do anything to hurt you and your friends. But if you really want me too, I'll leave."

Leader gave him a hard look over. "What do you really want?" she asked. "Why are you here?"

"Well, I came here trying to find out if I actually managed to get back to Wonderland," he said evenly. "But right now I want to find the person who hurt you and freeze them solid."

Leader looked surprised at that remark, so Jack explained. "Someone hurt you, Leader. And from the sound of things, they hurt your friends too. Anyone who hurts a kid is dead-meat in my books."

Leader thought that over for a minute, then slowly she made her way over to Jack, and slowly slipped her hand into his still outstretched one. "There is no need to worry about that, Alice already took care of _him_. And this is Wonderland, by the way," she replied. She was still cautious, but willing to give him a chance.

Jack gave her a friendly grin, and gently shook her hand.

Emboldened by this, several more children began to come out of their hiding spots, and Jack's heart broke a bit at the very sight of them. Not a one of them was unscarred, especially on their faces. Some of them were missing their eyes or ears, while others had bits of metal stuck in their heads, and they were all dressed similarly to Leader, in bloody nightgowns, or tattered slacks.

Jack shoved aside his feelings of horror for these kids, as well as the desire to rip the one who did this to them limb from limb. Battered and scared though they were, they were still _children_. And from the looks of things, they were in desperate need of some fun. That was something he could provide.

Alice, unfortunately, would have to wait a little longer.

Jack picked up his staff and leaned it staff against a wall and gave them all an infectious grin. It would probably be too much for the kids' trust for him to use his winter powers right now for a snowball fight, but there were plenty of other games to play.

"How about we all have a little fun," he said, catching the children's interest. "I bet you guys know every nook and cranny of this place, so who's up for a game of hide and seek?"

The surprised children glanced at each other, and then one by one they all started to smile and nod.

*A*A*A*

A/N I always felt bad for the insane children, because there isn't anything you can do to help them in the game. Insane or not, I can't see Jack standing by and not trying to cheer these kids up. Also getting on their good side will go a long way in getting on Alice's good side. Plus they incite his protective big brother side.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

When Alice got the alarm that someone had broken into Skool, she dropped what she was doing and rushed there as fast as she could.

After she'd failed to protect the Insane Children of Wonderland twice, from both the Mad Hatter's experiments or the Dollmaker's torture, she had taken it upon herself to not let them come to harm again.

She had given them a home in the Skool, and set all sorts of protections and alarms around the walls that would notify her immediately if something went wrong, and visited them often to make sure they were working.

The last time someone had tried to harm the children it had been the Duchess, who had a brief laps in her pork diet, and thought the children would make a tasty snack.

Alice made sure she relearned her manners in a very painful manner, and it now seemed the Duchess was on her way to being a vegetarian. Not many Wonderlanders had attempted to get close since, aside from a few suicidal ones, but they had been smart enough not to harm the children.

Alice reached the Skool and jumped through the window fearing the worst.

She did not expect to hear the halls filled with gleeful childish laughter.

Thrown off guard, Alice followed the laughter to the library, and the sight there made her pause.

It seemed Jack Frost had finally returned, as he was making a great show of checking various hiding spots in the library. Several of the Insane Children were watching him from the elevator lift, and giggling at his antics. None of them had noticed Alice yet.

Frost theatrically tapped his chin, as he paused in front of a giggling bookshelf. "I wonder where Corkscrew could be?" he announced loudly, making the children laugh. He dramatically looked to the right, left, and up, before jerking behind the bookshelf and yelling, "Gotcha!"

With a shriek of laughter, the little mad girl called Corkscrew (so named for the remains of a large screw sticking through her head) bolted from the other side of the bookcase, and ran towards the other children on the lift. The children cheered her on as she ran to them. Frost ran behind her deliberately slow, and pretended to trip and fall on the way, allowing Corkscrew to join her friends uninhibited.

"Safe!" Corkscrew cheered once she set foot on the elevator, and the others congratulated her.

Frost sat up off the floor and gave the group a mock scowl, "I'll get you next time my pretty," he said in high falsetto, and dramatically pointing at the children, "and your little dog too."

This sent another wave of laughter from the children, and Alice decided to make her presence known.

"What is going on here?" she asked stepping forward.

"Alice!" cheered the children, and they ran over too her. Frost also broke into a grin at the sight of her, but kept his distance as the children crowded around her.

"We're playing hide-and-go-seek," said the child called Muzzle.

"We're having so much fun too," said another named Eyeless.

"Jack's not very good at this game," giggled another named Redhead. "He can find us alright, but he can never catch us."

"And since I found all of you but one," Frost announced to them all, "I declare Leader the winner."

There came a muffled cheer, "Yes!" before Leader picked her way down to the rest of them from one of the upper levels.

While all this happened, Alice had felt rather thrown for a loop. She didn't know how she felt about Frost's return. Annoyed at his intruding again. Angry at his breaking into the Skool, and making her fear the worst. Bemused by his theatrics and games with the Insane Children. And in one small corner of herself that she wouldn't admit, she felt a small amount of relief at his keeping his promise.

Alice assumed her expression looked disproving, because Frost's face fell into a resigned look. "Looks like I have to go now, kids," he said.

The children all looked disappointed. "You'll come and play with us again, won't you Jack?" asked Corkscrew.

"Please," begged several others.

Frost gave them a kind smile, "I will if it's alright with Alice."

Alice found herself pinned under the gaze of several pleading eyes (at least from the children who had eyes).

She frowned, and turned to look at Leader. "Do you think he's safe to come back?"

Leader nodded with a grin. "He's a bit strange, but I don't think he'll hurt us."

"I won't," Frost said insistently. He made an x over his heart and said, "I swear on my honor as a Guardian."

Alice gave a resigned sigh. "Then I suppose it would be alright on occasion," she said reluctantly. After all these children had gone through, she couldn't bring herself to deny them someone who brought them joy.

The Insane Children cheered, and Frost sent her a grateful grin.

When the cheering died down, Leader said, "We'll leave you to threaten him with bloody murder should he not keep that promise."

With that the Insane Children scuttled out of the library leaving it empty save for Alice and Frost.

Frost gave an awkward chuckle and said, "Kids, gotta love 'em."

"Indeed," said Alice, glaring at him harshly. "And if I find you are the cause of any harm to them, I _will_ kill you without mercy."

"Good," he said in a serious tone. "I don't want anyone hurt because of me."

Alice started at that, but upon seeing the determined look on his face, she could tell he meant it.

She shook herself out of it, and cleared her throat, "So you've returned, have you."

"Yeah," said Frost, fetching his staff from where it had been leaning against a wall while he'd played. "Sorry it took so long. Bunny's Warren is huge, and has tunnels that go all over the world. I got lost trying to find my way back."

"Bunny?" she asked.

"Yeah," he grinned over at her. "He's the Pooka I mentioned before."

She frowned, and subconsciously began rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. "And what exactly is a Pooka?"

Frost looked amused. "According to Bunny, they were an ancient race of warrior rabbit people. They used to have advanced civilizations many millennia ago, but were al wiped out by someone. And now Bunny's the only one left before he became a spirit. You may have heard of him as the Easter Bunny, he's a Guardian like me."

Alice frowned at the ludicrously of his statement, but considering who and what her friends were she let it slide.

"What exactly do you mean by Guardian?" she asked, "You've called yourself that twice now."

"I'm one of the Guardians of Childhood," he said in a tone that seemed a cross between pride and amusement. "It's our job to protect the children of the world, good or bad, naughty or nice."

This made Alice frown angrily. "Then you are doing a terrible job of it!" she snapped. What good where these Guardians, when they didn't protect her, or the other children in their time of need.

He blinked at her owlishly, "Why?" he asked startled

"There were children in the Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth that needed protecting long before I ever got there," she said coldly, leaving out her own childhood troubles. "They were at the mercy of a _predator_, and got no protection from the likes of you."

Frost's eyes widened in horror as the meaning of what she was saying sunk in. He sat down hard on the floor, and looked like he was about to be sick. "I'm sorry," he said sincerely when he found his voice. "I only became a Guardian recently, and before that there was not much I could do other than make it snow. The other Guardians live mostly in isolation, and only come out for more supernatural threats. I don't know if they're even aware of what other dangers kids can face." He looked up at her. "What happened to them, the children?"

Alice's lips thinned. "I killed the monster causing them pain. After that I know not what happened to them."

Frost sighed, both in regret and relief. "Well that's something at least. For what it's worth, I'll try to do more for children in that situation from now on."

Alice gave him a searching look, but as far as she could tell he seemed sincere.

"What did you mean when you said there was nothing you could do for them before being a Guardian?" she asked, trying to steer the conversation away from her personal matters.

Frost glanced up at her with a wry expression. "Tell me something, Alice. Did you ever believe in me as a child?"

"What?" she asked in surprise.

"Did you ever believe I was real? Like you would have believed in the Tooth Fairy collecting your teeth, or Santa Claus leaving presents at Christmas."

Alice paused, and thought back on her vague memories of childhood. Finally she replied, "No, I don't suppose I did. I thought you were just a story."

Frost gave her a resigned nod that told her he'd been expecting that response. "No one ever believed in me until recently. And the thing about us spirits, we _need_ to be believed in order to be seen. Without belief people just pass through us like ghosts. We can't be seen, or heard, or touched by _anyone_. Like that, there isn't much I can do directly to someone aside from ice sidewalks and throw snowballs."

Alice felt there was a hidden implication in that statement, but she brushed it aside. Instead she found herself sitting down next to him.

"The Insane Children you met here came into being as manifestations of the children I couldn't protect," she explained in a clipped tone. She wan't sure why she was telling them this, but she felt she should. "They are my charges, and their scars are my guilt for failing to keep them from harm. Though the scars they have now are better than the open wounds they used to have. They are healing, slowly."

Frost nodded, but said nothing.

They sat in a heavy silence for a bit, before Alice couldn't help her curiosity. "Tell me more about these Guardians? You said the Easter Bunny was one of them? How could a rabbit with eggs protect children?"

Frost gave her a grateful grin at the change in subject. "I did say he came from a warrior race, didn't I. There are more then just Bunny and me, there's also Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman. We were all chosen by the Man in the Moon to protect children, as well as aspects of childhood. I have Fun, Bunny's is Hope, North (that's Santa) protects Wonder, Tooth takes care of Memories, and Sandy protects Dreams…"

They continued on like that for a while. Frost told Alice all about his fellow Guardians, and she listened on in interest, occasionally asking a question. She didn't feel she could forgive them for their ignorance about the plights of her past, but if Frost held true to his promise, she could remain indifferent about them.

After some time had passed, and Frost ran out of things to say about his friends, Alice asked a new question that had been on her mind since finding him here. "How did you find the Skool, Frost? It is quite the distance from the Hatter's Domain."

Frost scratched the back of his head, and said, "I'm not sure, but either I came out a different entrance from before. Or the hole I used moved from the last time I was here, because it came out in a corner by a wall in this place."

Alice frowned at that. There had certainly been no hole on the Skool grounds before. "Show me?" she said.

Frost, after saying goodbye to the Insane Children, led her to where the rabbit hole was now placed. Alice was sure it had never been there before, as she had made certain that the Skool would be safe to house the children in. This was not something she would have overlooked

"Do you know if your friend Bunnymund has been digging into my Wonderland recently?" she asked.

"I doubt it," said Frost. "I don't think he even knows his tunnels can lead here. And also, it's almost a month till Easter, so he's been super busy getting ready for that. So it's not likely he's been taking time off to dig new tunnels."

Alice frowned. "Then I suppose you were correct in the theory that the entrance must have moved, because I am certain it was not here before. Curiouser and curiouser."

Frost shrugged. "Either way, it's about time I got back. But I'll swing my again sometime soon."

With that he dove down the hole, and Alice was left to wonder what the warm feeling inside her was when he said he'd come back.

Watching all this from his perch on the wall, the Cheshire smirked and faded away.

*A*A*A*

A/N Well their second meeting went a bit better their first. Alice still got mad though. I don't think she'd think much of the Guardians, when they didn't help her with her childhood. And I can't see Jack being happy about hearing some kids got hurt like that.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

After Jack made his way out of the Warren he went strait to Burgess. There was something he needed to look up, and for that he needed to borrow a computer.

He hadn't been trying to get back to Wonderland the entire month he'd been gone from it. He still had his duties as a winter spirit to take care of, and he often made plans to stop by and see Jamie and his friends. His Wonderland search had filled up his time in between.

He swooped down and landed on Jamie's bedroom windowsill, and knocked on the glass. The window immediately opened to reveal Jamie's grinning face.

"Hi Jack! Are we having a snowball fight?" he asked, letting Jack step inside.

"Maybe in a bit, kiddo," said Jack with a fond smile. "But first I need to look into something. Can I borrow your computer?"

"Sure," said Jamie eagerly. He darted out of his room to get it. "Mom, I'm borrowing the computer!" Jack heard him call as he ran back with the laptop.

He placed it on his desk and opened google. Jamie had to do the typing, as Jack had a bad habit of icing electronics.

"So what do you need to look up?" he asked.

"Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth," Jack replied, moving so he could look over Jamie's shoulder. "It's an orphanage from way back when."

Jamie typed it in, what came up was an archived article from a London newspaper. The title made Jack's heart sink. Across the top of the page were the words **Wayward Home Houses Dark Secret.**

Jamie moved to click on it, but Jack quickly took his hand off the mouse and stopped him. If what Alice had been implying was true, then there was no way he could let Jamie read this. "Hold on, Jamie, I don't want you to read this."

"Why not?" asked Jamie, looking affronted. He wasn't used to Jack leaving him out of things.

"I promise I wont ice the computer. But if what happened in this orphanage is what I think happened, then I want to spare you the nightmares. I promise I'll give you the less traumatizing version of it later," Jack said seriously.

Something in his tone seemed to have convinced the boy. So Jamie left the computer, and moved to sit on his bed with a good book.

Jack sat at the desk and clicked the link. The article opened up to an old picture of a orphanage building with a few young children milling around it. Under the picture were the words:

**Wayward Home Houses Dark Secret.**

_What started as a search for a missing man, quickly turned to a dark scandal for London's Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth. When it was first noticed that Dr. Angus Bumby, a celebrated doctor and therapist for insane and troubled youths, had disappeared without a trace, a search was conducted to locate his whereabouts. Further investigation showed that one Alice Liddell, a maid at the orphanage and former mental patient of Rutledge Asylum, had also gone missing on the same day. At first any number of theories flew around at this discovery, ranging from the two running off to elope, to Liddell having a psychotic relapse and murdering Bumby before going on the run. Sadly these theories were put on hold upon a shocking and disturbing discovery. It seems good Dr. Bumby was not so good as he seemed, as it was discovered he was the racketeer for a child prostitution ring. Having used his skills as a hypnotist and a psychologist, Bumby had been conditioning and grooming the next generation of prostitutes from the orphans in his care, by erasing their memories and then selling the children to whatever pedophile would pay for them, then enjoying the profits that this brought in. The children have since been sent to Rutledge Asylum, and according to Doctor Heironymous Q. Wilson most of them are likely to make a recovery once the hypnotic suggestions are pulled away, though it would take time, and care. However it is unclear what lasting damage will be in place. The man-hunt for Bumby and Liddell continued, until it was discovered that a suicide happened in the Moorgate Station the same day the two went missing. Cleanup reports that there was only evidence of one person jumping in front of the train. Whether this suicide was one of the missing persons remains undetermined, but it is considered a likely possibility. Should anyone have information about this monster of a doctor, or the still missing Alice Liddell, they are encouraged to contact the authorities immediately._

Jack had read enough. He quickly shutdown the computer and bolted out the window. He shot off to his lake and once there he let out his anger and frustrations in the form of a small but powerful blizzard.

As the storm raged around him, thoughts of what he'd just read kept spinning around in his head. How could anyone do that to a child? And Alice, how had she been effected by this, aside from the manifestations of the insane children?

Alice had said she had killed the monster responsible, and Jack had a good feeling as to who the person under that train had been how he'd gotten there, and he couldn't bring himself to feel an ounce of sympathy for him. It wasn't the way he would have taken care of that scumbag, but he had to applaud Alice for stopping him.

When he'd finally finished venting he sat down on his frozen lake, exhausted from the power he'd spent.

After a few minutes he heard the sound of approaching footsteps picking their way though the now deep snow. He looked up to see Jamie and his friends approaching him.

"Jack, are you okay?" asked Jamie, looking frantic with worry on his behalf.

"Of course he isn't," said Cupcake. "He just made a whole super blizzard."

"That was awesome, by the way," said Claude, trying to relieve the tension.

"Yeah," agreed his twin, Caleb. "We could see it from our house. It was this huge storm that was only hit the forest, and nowhere else."

"Yeah," said Claude. "I just wish our parents had let us get a closer look, but they were scared it'd come over the town. So we had to watch it from the window."

Jack felt sheepish. "Yeah, sorry about that. I was trying to vent without hurting anyone."

"Well, that worked," said Monty, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "No one was hurt by it, but the weather reporters are scratching their heads trying to figure it out."

"So what happened anyway?" asked Pippa.

Jack sighed, and stood up. "After a prank on Bunny, I ended up in Wonderland and met Alice," he stated simply.

The kids gapped at him, before exploding into questions, all of them trying to talk over each other.

"Wait, Wonderland's real?"

"_She's_ real too?"

"I knew it!"

"No way!"

"How is that possible?"

"Did you meet the Queen of Hearts, or any of the others?"

"How'd you get there?"

Jack held up his hands trying to calm them down. "Whoa, whoa, one at a time."

Jack went on to tell them the whole story, from his prank on Bunny (the kids laughed at that) all the way to his conversation with Alice in the Skool library. Then he came to the part about what had made him so angry.

"When Alice told me about how no one helped the kids in that orphanage, I wanted to find out what happened," he said cautiously. He didn't want to tell the kids what had happened there, but he knew he had to tell them something. "So I used Jamie's computer to look it up. From the looks of things Alice used to work there before she moved to Wonderland permanently. And while she was there she found out that the man who ran the orphanage had been hurting the children there in terrible ways. So she stopped him."

The kids let out exclamations of appreciation for that.

"Wow, who'd have thought," said Caleb.

"Alice in Wonderland, the kick-butt action hero," finished Claude.

"Is she a Guardian too?" asked Jamie.

"No, I don't think she was chosen by MiM to be a spirit," said Jack thoughtfully. "I think it was more like Wonderland was more powerful than she thought, and by being there so long she made herself a spirit, or something."

"Maybe she was able to tap into one hundred percent of her brain," said Monty thoughtfully. "Humans can normally only use ten percent of their brain power, and people are always theorizing what would happen if we had more access. If Wonderland is really a manifestation of her mind, maybe through that Alice was able to reach more of her brain power than normal. Then, maybe any belief that came from the books helped to sustain her after all this time."

"You've been watching way too much sci-fi, Monty," said Pippa in amusement.

Jack shrugged. "Eh, it's a decent theory. I have no idea how we could prove it though. Who knows, maybe that's it, or maybe Manny did pick her, and didn't tell anyone about it."

"I still think she would make a good Guardian if she protects kids too," said Jamie stubbornly.

"Can we meet her?" asked Cupcake eagerly.

"I don't know," said Jack with reluctance. "From what I've seen Wonderland is a lot more dangerous than the books and movies say it is. And Alice didn't really like me going there at first. I don't think she'd be happy if I brought company."

"Well, could you bring her here?" asked Cupcake, not easily dissuaded.

Jack looked thoughtful about that. "Hmm, maybe. I can ask her at the very least."

"Yes!" cheered Cupcake.

That was when Jack noticed the kids were all shivering visibly. While the storm he'd caused may have died down, the temperature from it was still much too cold to stand out in for long.

"Come on," he said, and started to herd the kids back to Jamie's house. "Let's get you guys some hot coco, and start planning out our next snow war."

They all agreed, and the rest of the afternoon was spent in the Bennett's kitchen as they planed their next snowball fight over steaming mugs of hot chocolate.

*A*A*A*

It wasn't long after leaving the Bennett's residence that he noticed the Guardian summons in the sky.

Hoping nothing was wrong, he took to the sky and flew strait to the North Pole.

When he arrived there his fellow Guardian's were already there, discussing something in serious tones. As he entered, he realized they hadn't noticed him yet.

"… The winds were impossible to navigate, so my fairies came back to tell me what happened. I'm telling you guys, something is wrong," Tooth was saying worriedly.

North was frowning and stroking his beard, while Sandy was looking concerned.

"That's not all," said Bunny, who was clearly grumpy from being dragged from his Easter preparations. "The gumby's been in my tunnels any spare moment he gets. Said he was tryin' to go back and meet someone that he couldn't reach his usual ways."

Jack realized that they were talking about him, and he smacked his forehead. Of course his recent behavior would worry his teammates.

This caught Sandy's attention, and their smallest member quickly notified the others of his arrival.

"Jack!" exclaimed Tooth when she saw him. She darted over and gave him a quick hug, before she began checking him over for injuries, and asking questions very fast. "Are you alright? What happened? How are your teeth?"

"Tooth, Tooth, not so fast," said North, striding over to them. He then turned his attention to Jack. "Jack, vhat has happened? Ve vere getting reports of a freak blizzard over Burgess?"

"No one was hurt!" Jack exclaimed quickly. "I made sure to keep it away from the town."

"We know that, Frostbite," snapped Bunny, looking a mix of concern and annoyed. "What we're concerned about is what made ya make that storm in the first place."

Jack shuffled his feet and refused to look at them. "I got angry. I needed to vent," he said quietly.

North placed one of his massive hands on Jack's shoulder. "Jack," he said softly. "Vhat happened."

Jack sighed, and for the second time that day he told his story, but this time he didn't leave any details out.

Needless to say, the Guardians were not happy about what they heard.

"He _erased_ their memories? And turned them into- to-!" exclaimed Tooth, her feathers bristling in rage. "Why that-!"

"Why didn't we know about this?" asked Bunny, pacing furiously. "Do- Are things like this still happening? Why didn't we do something?"

"For same reason ve didn't know about Jack's memories and loneliness," said North in a regretful tone, as he slumped into a chair the elves hurriedly pushed forward. "Ve spent to long locked away in our domains that ve did not pay close enough attention."

Sandy with a solemn expression made an image of an eye looking around.

"Sandy is right," said Jack, trying to cheer his friends up. "We can't do anything about the past now. All we can do is move forward, and keep a better eye out from now on. I already promised Alice that I'd do that anyway."

"I'll tell my fairies to keep a closer eye out," said Tooth.

"I think ah'll start doing some patrols when I'm not too busy with my googies," suggested Bunny.

"Is good idea, Bunny," North agreed, perking up a bit. "I vill start too, as it is off season right now."

Sandy made a pair of sand binoculars and nodded.

The Guardians made more plans to be more vigilant with their charges, before turning back to the other matter Jack brought up.

"About this Alice, mate," said Bunny, cautious to approach the subject. "Are you sure she's safe?"

"No, I'm pretty sure she isn't," Jack said honestly. "I mean, I haven't seen her in action yet. But the way she held that knife, and from how the Wonderland people talk about her, I'm pretty sure she's a tough fighter. But she's not a bad person, and she's lonely. I'd like to be friends with her if she'll let me, and I think I might be making some headway in that."

The Guardians all sighed, knowing there was no way for them to talk Jack out of this. Trying to stop him wouldn't work, and would only lead to hurt feelings all around.

"Just be careful, Jack," said Tooth, giving him another hug. "I know you want to help, but we don't want to loose you."

"Yer showing me where this tunnel is," Bunny said in a tone that left no room for argument. "I won't go out it, unless that Sheila says it alrigh', but I wanna know where it is just in case."

Jack nodded in agreement, happy that they weren't going to try and stop him.

As Jack flew away, Sandy watched him go with a reminiscent look on his face, thinking of things long past.

*A*A*A*

A/N Some of the idea that Alice made herself a spirit comes from seeing a lot of trailers for that new Lucy movie. I haven't seen that movie yet, but I liked the idea, and I thought that if anypne tapped into more of their brain than normal people, it would be Alice. Some of the reactions from the Guardians was inspired by Sakon76's fic _The Bad Things._ All in all, now just about everyone is on the same page.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"So this is yer gateway to Wonderland," said Bunny, looking up at the hole out of his tunnels that Jack had led him too.

Jack nodded. "Yup. Every time I go up it, it seems to move to a different part of Wonderland. The first time was near a factory that the Mad Hatter owned. The second time was by some kind of school where the Insane Children live."

"Insane children?" asked Bunny in alarm.

"Children born or made in Wonderland, I think," said Jack with a shrug. "They're a little weird, and have a few screws loose, but they're good kids. I was able to get them to play hide n' seek with me."

Bunnymund shook his head in exasperation. "Only you, mate."

*A*A*A*

In the Mysterious East, Alice ducked as a Samurai Wasp took a swipe at her head, and then dodged away in a swirl of butterflies when another tried to sideline her with his katana.

The Origami Ants, who were once again under siege by the Wasps, had called her back to the Mysterious East to fight them off. She had arrived and quickly began dispatching them, only to walk into an ambush near the paper fan jumps. With how many Wasps there were, it seemed like they were making it their final stand there. Despite this, she continued to take them out, and their ranks were quickly thinning.

After using her Teapot Cannon to smash several Ink Wasp tablets, she tossed a Clockwork Bomb to distract the Samurai Wasps, and switched to her Pepper Grinder to shoot down all the Samurai Ink Wasps and Archers, as well as dodge and dispatch her other assailants that were not fooled by the bomb. When the Grinder overheated she switched to her Playing Cards to finish off the rest.

In that time the Clock Bomb had exploded, resulting in several angry Wasps coming back after her. She walloped them with electrified balls from her Croquet Mallet, before switching to smashing them with her Hobby Horse when the surviving ones got too close.

After the last Samurai Wasp lay dead, Alice slumped over using her Hobby Horse for support in order to catch her breath. The fight had left her gasping for breath, and had left plenty of hits that would become bruises by the next day. Alice had long since become used to battle over the years, but the overwhelming numbers of this attack had left her exhausted.

But the fight wasn't over yet, as a Daimyo Wasp leapt out of hiding and began swinging his Naginata cockily. Clearly, he believed Alice was now to tired and bruised to put up much of a fight, allowing for him to have an easy win.

Alice gritted her teeth at that thought, and readied her Hobby Horse for battle. She would show him which of them was weak.

The Daimyo Wasp rose into the air and raised his Naginata to strike. But before the blow fell there was a flash of white from behind him, and the large Wasp became frozen solid, before falling to the ground and shattering into small pieces.

Alice blinked in surprise at the sudden death of her enemy. Looking behind where he lay she spotted the now familiar figure of Frost sitting cross-legged on one of the large paper fans just off the cliff. He was grinning wildly as he jumped up and flew over to her.

Alice, on the other hand, scowled at him. "I was perfectly capable of dispatching him on my own, Frost," she said heatedly, thinking the boy had sought to protect her.

Far from being dissuaded, Frost kept grinning at her in excitement. "Oh, I have no doubt. I saw you take down those other guys before him. That was _awesome_!"

"Awesome?" she repeated, startled at the praise. This was not the reaction most people from the real world would have in response to a woman fighting in her experience.

"It means fantastic, stupendous, amazing," he said by way of explanation. "I mean, I knew from what the others were saying that you could fight, but seeing it for myself was incredible. Also, nice dress by the way," he gestured to her Silk Maiden dress.

Alice actually found herself starting to blush at his compliments, and quickly turned her head away to hide her reddening cheeks from him. While the others of Wonderland often sought her out for her fighting skills, few had ever complimented her for them before, and never as enthusiastically as Frost was doing.

"If you find it so impressive, why did you stop the Daimyo?" she asked out of curiosity, still keeping her eyes firmly in the direction of the Ant Village.

While she wasn't looking at him, she got the feeling that Frost had shrugged. "Because that's what friends do," he said simply.

Her head whipped around in shock, and she stared at him in disbelief at his blunt statement.

Frost shuffled a bit under her gaze, and clutched his staff closer to himself self-consciously. "I mean, I consider _you_ my friend, anyway. How you think of it is entirely up to you."

Alice remained silent at this. Friends, she had had so few of those for years. The only friends she still considered to truly be her friends were Cheshire Cat and White Rabbit for their constant and consistent loyalty. Could Frost become counted among them… She wasn't sure. It was too soon too for her to tell.

As if sensing her turmoil, Frost simply nodded at her and said, "You can work it out on your own time. But to me, you're my friend, and that's all there is too it."

Alice turned her back on him and walked away. "Let's return to the village. We should let the Origami Ants know the Wasps have been defeated."

Frost fell into step beside her. "Sounds good to me. The hole came out just outside there this time."

For once Frost kept silent on their journey. Alice appreciated this as it allowed her to gather her thoughts. Did she want to be friends with him? Even if it was too soon for her to give her trust, was it something she would even want?

Maybe. That was the only answer she could see at the moment. Because as loathed as she was to admit it, she could already feel herself growing fond of Frost. While he clearly wielded great power, he had not used it destructively aside from freezing Hatter's tea party (but that was something she herself had done on occasion with the Ice Wand). He had yet to show any form of hostility towards her, and the Insane Children seemed to adore him. They often asked when he would come back to play with them, and with the childrens' abusive past, their trust and affection said a lot about Frost as a person. It all seemed to point to Frost being a good and kindhearted person. There was also no denying that Frost was interesting. The stories he told always held her interest, and she would admit to wanting to hear more of them.

But that didn't change the fact that she barely knew him, and he was an outsider. The last time an outsider tread upon her Wonderland, the Dollmaker had been created. Bumby had been someone she had trusted, someone she had also seen as harmless and kind. Who was to say that Frost wouldn't one day turn on her as well? Wonderland couldn't take another betrayal like that, and neither could she.

Still, she couldn't help the warm feeling of affection that had bloomed in her chest when Frost had referred to her as his friend. She couldn't remember was the last time anyone had referred to her as such.

_Maybe_. That was the answer that would have to do for now.

By the time she came to that conclusion she and Frost reached the Origami Ant's village, and she was surprised to see it covered in light, fluffy snow.

She glanced questioningly over at Frost.

"When I got here the place was on fire," he replied to her unasked question, twirling his staff to point at the charred parts of some of the houses. "So I did what I could to put it out."

He then turned and pointed towards a cluster of rocks on the outskirts of the village. "That's where the rabbit hole is this time. Just so you know."

Alice nodded, and turned to greet the Origami Ant Elder and the rest of the cheering villagers.

"Again you have saved us, Alice," said the Elder bowing to her, causing his long beard to brush the ground. "Our oppressors are no more, and for that you have our deepest thanks."

Alice nodded politely to him to accept his gratitude, so few in Wonderland expressed it to her.

The Elder then turned to Frost and bowed to him as well. "And you, stranger, you put out our fires, and rescued our wounded from the blaze, and in doing thus our losses are very few. You have our thanks as well."

Frost smiled at him. "Name's Jack Frost, and it was no problem, sir. I was happy to help."

"To show our gratitude, the monks and villagers have prepared a feast in your honor at the temple," continued the Elder, gesturing up the mountain in the temple's direction. "Won't you please come and celebrate with us?"

Alice nodded thoughtfully. "I don't see why not."

Frost nodded as well. "Sure, I'd love to."

The Elder began leading them up to the temple. On the way, one villager came forward and presented Frost with a bag. "Your bag, Frost-san," the villager said. "I guarded it with my life, just as you asked."

Frost looked bewildered by that statement. "Uh, thanks, but you didn't need to go that far. I just asked you to keep an eye on it till I got back."

"I did sir," said the villager cheerfully. "Both eyes for the entire time. I barely blinked."

Frost gingerly took the bag from him. "Okaaaaay. Thanks again."

"It was my honor, Frost-san," said the villager, who bowed and scuttled ahead to the temple.

Frost stared after him. "Weird guy."

Alice felt a sensation that had become familiar to her since meeting Frost, which was her lips twitching into an almost smile. "All the Origami Ants are like that I'm afraid," she said. "Kind people, but a bit daft and literal."

"No kidding," said Frost sarcastically, swinging the bag so that it hug from his shoulder.

"Indeed. I once met one who believed the measure of intelligence was the ability to recite Little Red Ridding Hood backwards, and do multiplication tables up to eleven," she said nonchalantly.

Frost let out a snort, and began to laugh at that.

Alice then glanced again at his bag. "What is in there, anyway?"

He smirked at her. "Oh, just something I want you to see."

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, but the two of them were swept away by the crowd of happy monks and villagers, who sat them both at a low table piled high with large peaches, glasses of sake, and tea.

The Origami Ants then had a toast to their saviors before they all began to eat, drink, and be merry. Alice helped herself to a cup of tea and a peach, and saw Frost do the same.

As the Ants talked amongst themselves, Alice turned her attention back to the bag. "So what is it you wanted me to see then?"

Jack looked amused. "Books," he said.

"Books?"

"Yup, books about you."

Alice felt irritated. "Don't be preposterous."

"I'm not," he countered. "I've also got a few movies in here, but I'm not sure you know what those are."

"You're speaking utter nonsense," Alice snapped.

"Considering I'm saying it to someone who created a world of nonsense you must be really out of the loop," Frost replied.

"Loop? What are you on about?" Alice snapped, getting frustrated. Why would there be books about her?

Jack reached into the bag and pulled out two old looking books, as well as two strange cases around the same size as the books.

Alice looked at the books first. One was titled **Alice's Adventures in Wonderland****, **and the other **Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There****.** Alice blinked in shock, before glancing over the cases. Both were simply titled **Alice in Wonderland** and depicted a blond girl in a blue dress, one was an illustration, and the other looked like a photograph, but in color.

Alice stared at them in shock, before rounding on Frost. "What's all this then?" she demanded.

Frost shrugged and pointed at the books. "In the late eighteen hundreds, a guy named Charles Dodgson wrote these two books under the name Lewis Carroll, and they got really famous. The story later got transitioned into other media, like movies and music," he tapped the cases at that.

Alice tried to process this. "Dodgeson," she muttered to herself, recognizing the name. "The clumsy sailor… I knew him. I remember Lizzie telling me he almost capsized their boat. He used to enjoy having me tell him stories about Wonderland." She looked at the two books. "He wrote these? About Wonderland… and _me_?"

Frost nodded. "From what I've read, he got some details wrong, but the story is loved the world over. There is hardly a person on Earth who hasn't at least heard of Alice and her Wonderland. In fact, some of the kids I like to play with love the story, and would like to meet you someday, if you want."

Alice didn't know what to think about that. She could only stare silently at the books.

Frost pushed the books in front of her, and put the cases away in his bag. "Take a look at them, and see what you think. If nothing else, you at least know that someone remembered you after you were gone."

Alice took the books, and remained contemplative for the rest of the feast.

*A*A*A*

A/N Because Alice is a badass, and someone should tell her that. In both games no one really goes out of their way to tell her how cool she is. Jack had a backpack by the way, I don't think those had been invented in Alice's time, but correct me if I'm wrong. In this story, Alice doesn't know about the books about her. She doesn't even realize how long it's been since she left reality. I tried to spin the reveal of the books so that they would be more meaningful to her. Charles Dodgeson is mentioned in both games. His picture shows up in AMA, and he's mentioned in a memory of Lizzie in AMR.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Time marched on, and Jack Frost came back to visit several more times in various areas of Wonderland (most commonly coming out at the Skool, much to the Insane Children's delight). And while he still remained friendly in his actions, and Alice began to grow used to his visits, she still could not come to a conclusion as to his declaration of friendship, or her response to it.

Still, she found herself looking forward to Frost's visits. He would always bring with him a new story, or game for the Insane Children to play. On Easter he came bringing a large basket filled with the best chocolate eggs she had ever tasted. "Bunny's secret recipe," he explained when asked.

However, one thing that Alice was starting to wonder about was the distinct lack of Cheshire Cat when ever Frost showed up. When she asked the feline about it, the Cat gave her his usual grin and said, "It's not such a mystery. I simply did not want to interfere."

"Interfere with what?" Alice had demanded.

The Cat simply rolled his eyes and vanished, leaving her question unanswered.

In the meantime, Alice went on to read the books Frost had brought her in her quiet time (which was few and far between, as there were few quiet places in Wonderland). The stories Dodgeson had written were fanciful, childish, and oh so like the Wonderland of her childhood.

Alice's faded memories of her youth became vibrant again as she read an outsider's telling of it. She remembered more of how Wonderland used to be, before the fire and her madness had turned it harsh and bloody. Those childhood memories were bittersweet, but Alice was glad to have them back all the same. Still, she didn't think much of the portrayal of herself, but then nothing was ever perfect.

It wasn't until later that Alice noticed something odd about the publishing date of the books.

"It says these books were published in the nineteen-nineties," she pointed out to Frost during his next visit, once again at the Skool. She had waited till the Insane Children had had their fun in the Theater and run off, before showing him the two dates question.

Frost looked at the publishing dates in the books and nodded. "Yeah, I know. Sorry for getting you twenty-year-old books, but they were being sold for cheap at a used bookstore when my friend Jamie found them. Jamie and his friends say 'Hi', by the way."

"Tw-twenty?" Alice said in shock.

"Yeah," said Frost, then he paused and studied her face. "Wait, how long did you think it had been since you came here?" he asked in concern.

"I-I assumed…" she stammered, still shocked at the revelation. "I didn't think it had been that long. Time very is finical here in Wonderland. He does not like to match up to real time."

"He?" asked Frost, before getting back on topic. "Alice, I don't know how long you've really been here, but the Victorian era ended a century and a half ago. It's the twenty-first century now."

Alice sat down hard on a seat in one of the theater chairs, shocked and devastated at this revelation.

"Then that means… Everything, everyone I know…" she couldn't get the words out.

Frost kept silent, and sat with her while she worked though her inner turmoil. Alice couldn't help but feel grateful for it, as it brought her some comfort.

It wasn't until later that she realized that Frost most likely had his own experience with the loss of time in his three centuries of life. She couldn't help but hope he'd had someone to help him though it like he did her.

*A*A*A*

Jack, meanwhile, had had his own problems.

"You want me to bring Alice to your Summer Solstice party?" he asked North incredulously. Jack had gotten word from Sandy that North had wanted to talk to him, but this was not what he had been expecting when he reached the North Pole.

North was very fond of hosting get-togethers for team bonding, and the Summer Solstice was at a time of year when he and Bunny were not crunched for time, and (if planned ahead) Tooth and Sandy could take a night off to have some fun. It also fit well with Jack's schedule as summer in the Northern hemisphere was his off season, and only a few places in the south and far north needed snowfall.

"Da, of course I do!" exclaimed North jovially. "Ve all vant to meet thees girl vho has so caught your _interest_."

Jack missed the mischievous twinkle in North's eyes at that statement, and didn't realize the implications.

"I don't know, North," said Jack, examining the invitation the Cossack had given him to pass on. "Alice doesn't like of the idea of leaving Wonderland, especially after the bombshell that it's been almost a hundred and forty years since she went there. I haven't been able to talk her into coming to visit Cupcake and the kids yet, and they really want to meet her too."

"Then they can come to party too," said North cheerfully. "Ve all get to meet her, and the more the merrier."

Jack shook his head, at the Cossack for missing the point. "I'll give her an invitation, North, but don't hold your breath."

And thus, Jack found himself flying through the Warren's tunnels to give Alice the brightly decorated card.

When he came upon the opening he went up it without a second thought. While Wonderland had proven to be more dangerous than expected, the hole had yet to let him out into immediate danger.

Until now!

Jack froze in horror as he realized where he had come out. _He was at the bottom of the ocean_. All around him were walls of fish bones, and in looking down he saw the ocean floor was littered with them too. The giant empty skulls of carnivores fish glared down at him from their mounts upon the walls.

The horrible sight was something out of Jack's nightmares. All rational thought flew from his mind.

Jack panicked.

*A*A*A*

When Carpenter had extended an invitation to Alice to see his latest on stage production, she should have known it would lead her to doing all the last minute errands before the show could start.

She was in the middle of trying to convince the Walrus to not eat the Oyster Starlets, or the audience members before, during, or after the performance, when a fish citizen of Barrel Bottom came running over to her in a panic.

"Save us Alice!" he said franticly, his top hat falling off his overlarge head. "The ocean is getting frozen up! Soon there'll be no water left! It's a new Ice Age!"

"Frozen?" Alice asked in surprise, and could only think of one person who could do something like that. "Frost?"

"Where is this happening?" she demanded, determined to get to the bottom of it.

"Just outside of town," said the fish fearfully. "At the bottom of the fishbone slide."

"Right then," said Alice, marching forward. "I'll go take care of it then." She glanced back at the two. "And Walrus, _No_ snacking!"

The Walrus, who had just been about to take a bite out of the fish's head while his back was turned, slumped back on to the floor and moaned in disappointment. The fish let out a fearful squeak, and scurried away.

She then ran out of the Dreary Lane Theatre, ignoring the Carpenter's cries to come back, and made her way to where the fishhad said Frost was causing havoc.

As she reached the top of the fishbone slide, she could see what the fish had been talking about. In the distance where the slide ended she could see flashes of white light, and great chunks of ice floating up to the surface.

"What is that fool doing?" she asked aloud. Could he have finally betrayed her? Or was their more too it? Alice found herself expecting the former, but hoping for the latter.

"Once a fool, always a fool, unless remedied," said the Cheshire Cat as he appeared beside her. "And even those who aren't fools do foolish things when they are afraid."

"Afraid?" asked Alice. "Afraid of what?"

Frost had never shown fear in front of her before. Even when a Colossal Ruin interrupted one of their meetings, he had shown nothing but determination as he helped her destroy it.

"Everyone fears something, Alice. Even those immortal with no worry of death, still remember its embrace," said the Cat before fading away, and leaving her to her thoughts.

Seeing no point in pondering it now, Alice took a running jump, and slid down the fish scales that made up the slide through a giant ribcage. Upon reaching the bottom she saw Frost crouched in the middle of the clearing.

He was curled in on himself, shaking madly, and clutching his staff for dear life with one hand. His powers seemed to be out of control, constantly freezing the water around him and sending the ice floating to the surface.

"**FROST!**" she yelled in order to be heard over the cracking ice. "**What Are You _Doing_?**"

Frost slowly looked up at her. Alice could immediately see that the Cat had been right. Frost was utterly terrified, and in the tight grip of a panic attack. The sight of her seemed to be making him panic worse, because the water began freezing even faster around them. Though, as Alice notice, it didn't freeze within a decent radius of her, keeping her safe from being frozen along with it.

Alice looked around, but couldn't see what he could possibly be afraid of. There was nothing there to truly fear, and she doubted the fish bones had garnered this extreme of a reaction.

Looking more closely at Frost, she noticed he had his other hand clamped over his nose and mouth, and he didn't appear to be breathing.

Suddenly the reason for his hysteria became clear.

"Frost, **Breathe**!" she yelled as she quickly made her way through the ice towards him.

He stared up at her uncomprehending.

Alice reached him and clamped her hands onto his shoulders, forcing him to look at her in the eye. "_**BREATHE**_**, JACK!**"

Jack was so startled his hand flew off his mouth and he gasped in a large breath. Realizing he could breathe, the freezing of the water around them slowed dramatically, but Alice could see he was still very frightened.

Seeing this, Alice grabbed his hand and dragged him through the doorway that led back to Barrel Bottom. But instead of going towards town, she grabbed one of the ice chunks and let it float her and Jack up a ways, before letting go and drifting over to a giant snail shell that was behind a fishbone wall. She then pulled him into the shell and the world around them changed.

They found themselves upon a giant tea table in the middle of a swirling vortex, with clocks and various other things floating around them.

Alice braced herself for the usual battle that occurred in these places, but noticed the lack of giant versions of the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit looking down at them. When enemies failed to appear, she cautiously put her weapons away, and turned her attention to Jack.

While she had been dragging him he had put up no resistance. Now that they were out of the water he had collapsed onto the giant table and, gasped for breath as the last of his panic attack faded away.

She sat down next to him and waited until he slowly sat up.

"Jack, I take it that it was a fear of water that set you off," she stated rhetorically.

Jack gave a full body shudder, which was answer enough.

"May I ask why? As an immortal spirit who can't drown, I can't imagine what could cause such a fear. Especially when ice and snow are made of water, and therefore your element," she said bluntly. She wanted an explanation for Jack's actions and she would get one, whether Jack was comfortable with it or not.

"But I wasn't always," Jack said softly.

"I'm sorry?" she asked, not quite hearing him.

"I wasn't always a spirit," he confessed, a little louder this time, and making Alice stare at him in shock.

*A*A*A*

A/N There was more foreshadowing in this chapter, if anyone can see it. Making Jack afraid of water is a common theme in a lot of fics, I can see the Deluded Depths giving him a panic attack.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

I wasn't always a spirit," Jack said in a quiet tone. "Before that I was just your average kid, whose family had settled down in the colonies."

"You were human once?" Alice asked. She had assumed he had been born into what he was, and grew into his immortal state.

"All spirits were someone else before they became spirits. I told you about Bunny being a Pooka warrior, remember. It's our actions in our mortal life that get us chosen to become spirits later on."

"And this fear is one left over from your mortality?" Alice asked, understanding dawning on her.

But Jack shook his head. "No, it's a fear I gained when I was getting my immortality."

Sensing there was a story behind that, Alice was unsure how to ask about it when it seemed very personal to Jack.

Fortunately, he began to explain without her asking. In a expressionless tone he said, "When I was human, my family and I lived it a small village in the American colonies, back before the Revolution. We were just your average shepherd family from that time. I had a Pa, a Ma, and a little sister. Our village was in Pennsylvania, so it was always really cold in the winter. That didn't matter to me, because I always loved playing in the snow with my sister. Then one winter, my sister and I got ice-skates for Christmas. We were so excited to go use them, we went strait to the lake nearby once Pa said it was frozen over. My sister was so eager to get started, that she started skating around before I could fully check if the ice was thick enough."

He stopped talking for a minute, staring into the swirling vortex around them without really seeing it. Alice didn't push him, knowing it was taking a lot to confess this.

"When the ice started cracking under her, that was one of the scariest moments of my life," he finally continued. "I got as close to her as I could before it started to crack under me too. I took my skates off, and did the best I could to keep her calm. I managed to talk her into playing hopscotch to get her off the ice. But hopscotch was hard for her to play in skates, so I was able to use this," he held up his staff, "to pull her to safety. But in doing so, I slid myself onto the thin ice, and it broke under me. Next thing I knew, it was night and I was being pulled from the ice looking like this," he pointed at his pale skin and hair. "Along with ice powers, a new name, and was invisible to the world."

Alice stared at him. She didn't know what to say to that.

"I have no regrets," he said firmly. "If I had to I'd do it all over again, but being under that ice…" he trailed off. "I haven't liked deep water since."

"That was very brave, what you did, Jack," Alice said finally. "Very noble."

Jack nodded. "Thanks. I just wish I'd remembered sooner."

"Remembered?" she asked.

"When I came out of the ice I had no memory of my past," he explained. "I think it has something to do with the shock of, well, dying. I didn't remember it until recently, after getting ahold of my baby teeth."

Alice felt that that was simply unfair, but she kept quiet.

They sat in silence for a while. Staring into the vortex and watching the various objects in if float by.

"What was your name?" Alice asked suddenly, breaking the silence.

"Huh?" asked Jack, looking over at her.

"You said you woke up with a new name and appearance. What was it before?" she asked.

Jack thought hard for a moment like he had forgotten what it used to be. "Overland," he said finally, "my name was Jackson Overland. Also, my hair and eyes used to be brown, and I wasn't so pale."

Alice studied him, trying to picture Jack as he'd described himself. She thought the way he was suited him more.

"What about you?" he asked. "Did you look any different outside of Wonderland?"

Alice thought back to her old appearance. "Somewhat," she said finally. "I was thinner, I believe, and my hair was shorter."

Jack nodded, and smiled at her. "Thank you, by the way."

"For what?" she asked.

"For getting me out of there," he said appreciatively. "For listening to me. For trying to distract me from the bad stuff. Thanks for that."

"Well, I'd be a poor friend if I didn't," she said simply.

Alice then paused and blinked. That sentence had slipped out before she could think about it, but she realized that it was finally true.

Any other threat to Wonderland she would have destroyed without a second thought. But with Jack she had taken the time to find out why, and in doing so was able to help him without harming him. He had also revealed his weaknesses and his past to her, despite how personal they were. She was still reluctant to give her trust to him completely, but for now she felt it couldn't hurt to trust him a little bit, enough to take the hand of friendship that he had extended before.

Jack was grinning at her like Christmas had some early. "About time you figured it out," he said teasingly. "But I kinda figured that's what it was. I mean, you've finally been calling me by my name, instead of Frost."

Alice blinked in surprise, and she realized he was right.

For the first time since they had gotten there, Jack actually looked at their surroundings. "Where are we, anyway?"

"Inside a Radula room," said Alice, standing up and gesturing to the giant tea table they were standing on and vortex around them. "There are several of them littered throughout Wonderland. The Cheshire Cat says they are here to test me, ensuring my physical and mental abilities are up to the challenges I'll face. In rooms like these, I usually have to fight a large group of enemies to complete the challenge. However, I've been in this Radula room before. That may be why we haven't been attacked since coming here."

Jack stood up too, and let out a whistle. "Guess that's something to be grateful for." Then he smacked his forehead. "Oh, right. I completely forgot why I was coming to see you in the first place."

He reached into his pocket and pulled a brightly colored card, and then handed it to Alice.

She took it and read message inside it. "You're Invited to the Guardians of Childhood Summer Solstice Celebration," she read aloud. She looked at Jack questioningly.

"The Guardians all want to meet you after hearing me tell them about you," explained Jack. "The Burgess kids will be there too." He paused and studied the disinclined look on her face. "You don't have to come if you don't want to. It's still a few months away. But it's one party with my friends, you might even have fun."

Alice looked at the card reluctantly. "I'll think about it," was all she said, though she didn't actually have any intention of going. "We should get you back to the tunnel," she added.

Jack winced. "Right, back into the breach."

Alice held out her hand. "Keep your eyes closed," she said patiently. "I'll lead you there. It can't be far from where I found you."

Jack still didn't look happy about going back to the Deluded Depths, but he took Alice's hand in his. "Alright," he said resolutely, "I trust you."

And for the first time since he'd met her, Jack saw Alice smile.

*A*A*A*

As Alice led the winter spirit back towards the rabbit hole, she didn't notice the Cheshire Cat watching them go.

The Cat nodded his head, pleased with the outcome of this misadventure.

Out of all others in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat was the one of the very few who truly cared for Alice's well being, the only other being the White Rabbit. The Cat had watched over Alice since the day she created Wonderland, and would admit to being fond of the girl and wanted what was best for her.

Which was why he had taken certain steps when Frost had appeared in Wonderland. After watching his actions in the Hatter's Domain, he had deemed the boy reckless and foolish, but for the most part harmless. His friendly disposition and humor had really been what had caught the feline's attention. He had been quite surprised when Frost had nearly accomplished something in minutes, that none had been able to do in over a century. He was almost able to make Alice smile.

Later when he heard the boy's vow to come again to see Alice, he had stepped in and (in his own way) encouraged Alice not to keep him out.

The Cheshire Cat knew Alice better than anyone. Wonderland had been able to provide her with much for her over the years, but there was one thing it lacked that Alice quite desperately needed. Human companionship. Grant it, Frost was no longer human, but he came close enough. A grinning cat and a perpetually late rabbit could not provide the companionship that Frost had been able to provide effortlessly since his arrival.

So the Cat continued to observe the two immortal teenagers from a distance, keeping a close eye for any threat Frost could provide, and to make certain Alice continued to remain pleased with his company. For if he wore out his welcome, the winter imp would find himself facing severe punishment for any crimes.

But the feline was very pleased to see that Alice's budding friendship with Frost was proceeding along like he had hoped, even with a bump or two along the way. Frost had proved himself to be a kind individual, who genuinely wanted to gain Alice's friendship. And lo and behold he had managed to succeed in gaining it, if a bit tense and tentative for now.

So the Cat continued to watch and wait in order to see how it all played out. That party Frost had mentioned held promise. Perhaps a little more convincing would be in order…

*A*A*A*

Deep in the decrepit Dollhouse section of Wonderland, hundreds of Slithering Ruin gathered together outside the wreckage of the Infernal Train that housed their creator.

Their oozing bodies slipped through the tiniest cracks of the wreckage until they reached their master.

The Dollmaker looked at his forces with his empty black eyes, before turning his head towards one of his pinned arms.

Sensing what he wished of them, the Slithering Ruin swarmed into the thin area between the Dollmaker's arm and the twisted metal that kept it in place.

Once there, the Ruin began using its burning acid like qualities to eat away at the Dollmaker arm, making sure to stay within the metal as it did so, so that there was no outward evidence to be seen the next time Alice came to check on him.

The process was agonizingly slow, as the Dollmaker had made the Ruin so that it wouldn't burn him easily. What was the point of having a weapon that would cause harm to its user? But now the Dollmaker required the Ruin to do just that in order for him to escape. Though the process would most likely months for the Ruin to completely eat through all four of his arms and both of his legs.

The Dollmaker lay back and did his best not to writhe in the agony he was in. It was excruciating, but if his plan came to fruition, all the pain would be well worth it. Besides, he had his other Ruin Forces and Doll Girls out in Wonderland searching for, and constructing his replacement parts once he was free, as well as causing distractions to keep pesky Alice from discovering his plans.

Soon the Dollmaker would have his vengeance, and Alice and the rest of her Wonderland would suffer for it. For now, it was only a matter of Time.

*A*A*A*

A/N What do you think, too sappy? Well Jack and Alice are now officially friends, and we know why the Cheshire Cat had been avoiding them. Dun dun duuuh, the Dollmaker is starting to make his move.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing_


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

After the incident in the Deluded Depths, Jack was much more careful when entering Wonderland. He did not want to get caught off guard again in someplace unpleasant. But that didn't stop him from visiting when ever he had a chance, which was more frequent now that winter had ended in the northern hemisphere.

Alice had to admit, she enjoyed the experience of having a friend again. Despite this, she still did not wish to go to the party Jack's friends were hosting. Jack never pushed the matter, but Alice could tell he was disappointed by her refusal.

One day a week before the party, Alice had again refused to change her mind as Jack was saying goodbye. He hid his disappointment behind a smile, and flew down the rabbit hole back to his reality.

Alice sighed, and headed in the direction of the Dollhouse. It was time to make sure her prisoner was still trapped in his hovel.

"Conflicted?" said a voice beside her. She turned to see the Cheshire Cat appear in his usual fashion.

"Not in the least, Cat," she said dismissively. "The world outside Wonderland is not for me, I have long since learned that lesson."

"And yet you still can't help your curiosity," the Cat pointed out.

Alice huffed at the Cat's ability to read her so well. Ever since Jack had told her how much time had passed since she'd left the other world, she couldn't help the curiosity at how the world had changed. Jack had been happy to answer any question she asked, but his replies had left her even more intrigued than before.

But she didn't want to get hurt again. Nothing but pain came from that world. She said as much to the Cat.

"Pity," he said. "Fear can cause such disappointments."

Alice rounded on him, insulted. "I am not afraid."

The Cat grinned and faded away.

Alice scowled at where he had last been. She knew what he was doing. He was trying to goad her into going.

She stormed angrily off to the check the prison in the Dollhouse. Taking out her frustrations on any Bitch Babies and Doll Girls that crossed her path.

Still what the Cat had said stuck in her heads. _Was_ she afraid, or was she simply avoiding it from past experience?

She couldn't come up with an answer for that, and it was driving her mad.

*A*A*A*

The day of North's party, Jack stopped by Wonderland one last time to give Alice a chance to change her mind.

He came out in the Vale of Tears, a place he'd been to a few times before, and liked. It was a beautiful place with its tall trees, and toys scattered around, and best of all the rivers were shallow. He just had to make sure to keep an eye out for the Duchess and avoid her.

Jack didn't have to search long for Alice. He found her at the foot of one of the giant weeping statues, talking to the White Rabbit. Jack had met the Rabbit briefly before, and the guy had struck him as nice, but twitchy. It also amused him to see that this rabbit had an accent too.

"… And if absolutely _anything_ is amiss, you come and tell me immediately," she was saying to the nervous creature.

"Yes, yes of course, Alice," the Rabbit replied. "But must you go?"

"Go where?" asked Jack, flying over to them, brining their attention to his arrival.

"To your gathering, of course," Alice said briskly. "I assume I am still invited?"

Her abrupt change in tune threw Jack for a loop, and he spent a few moments gaping like a fish before he could answer. "Yeah, yeah, of course you are. You want to go?"

"If I did not, I made these preparations for nothing," she said, walking past him. "Shall we be off?"

Jack hurried after her, wondering what on earth had happened to change her mind, but he was not complaining.

He led her through the tunnels to the Warren, where Bunny would lead them to the right tunnel to the Pole.

As they went Jack began giving Alice advise on how to deal with his friends. "Tooth is really perky, and she'll most likely want to look at your teeth. So it's best to just let her and get it over with. Sandy doesn't really talk, but he gets the point across with sand pictures. North's kinda loud, and he tends to go overboard, especially about Christmas, but he's really nice. And the kangaroo known as the Easter Bunny…"

"Oi! Watch what yer calling a kangaroo, mate," called Bunny, as they entered the area where he was waiting for them.

Bunny looked over Alice as they drew near. He stuck out his paw and said, "Nice tah finally meet ya, miss. I'm E. Aster Bunnymund."

"He's annoying, grumpy, and reeeeally full of himself," Jack interjected. Then had to duck as Bunny took a swipe to his head.

"Alice Liddell, charmed," said Alice, ignoring Jack's teasing.

"Likewise, Sheila," Bunny said. Then he jerked his head towards one of the tunnels. "This is the way to the North Pole, lets get this over with."

"You sound as though you do not want to go to this," observed Alice, as she and Jack hurried after him.

Bunny sighed in exasperation. "It's not that I don't want to go, it's just- Frostbite wasn't kiddin' when he said North goes overboard. When ya give him an excuse to throw a party, well, you'll see what I mean."

"How are the kids getting there?" asked Jack. "Do I need to go get them?"

"Nah, North said he'd pick them up with the sleigh," said Bunny.

Jack snickered, "Lucky kids. Everyone loves the sleigh."

*A*A*A*

Jack and Alice soon saw what North meant. It had seemed odd to Jack that they would have a summer party at the North Pole, rather than someplace more appropriate, like Tooth Palace, or Sandman's Island. But North had done his best to turn the better part of the upper floor of workshop into a beach party, meanwhile most of the yetis still worked on the lower floors. There both fake and real palm trees everywhere, and sand had been spread across the floor. A large aquarium with tropical fish was set off to one side, and a large indoor pool had been set up beside it. The yetis at the party wore grass skirts and carried trays of drinks in coconut cups, and platters of seafood. The elves scurried underfoot, switching out their usual pointed hats for wooden tiki-heads.

"Wow," said Jack incredulously, as he took in his surroundings. "North went all out."

"Ho ho ho, of course I did, is party!" guffawed North as he walked up to them wearing a very tacky red Hawaiian print t-shirt.

He then beamed down at Alice. "You must be Miss Alice Liddell. Is very nice to meet you. I am Nicolas St. North, better known as Santa Claus or Father Christmas. But please, just call me North."

"Thank you for inviting me," Alice politely, if a bit stiffly. North looked far from what she'd expected of Father Christmas

"Bah, is no big deal," said North waving his hand. "Ve have all been very anxious to meet you. Is not everyday a pretty young lady catches Jack's eye."

This time Jack caught the insinuation. "Dude!" he said in embarrassment.

Fortunately for him, Alice had been distracted by the elves doing something stupid and missed North's last statement.

"What are they doing?" she asked incredulously. Watching as a group of elves kept banging their heads against each other and falling over like dominos.

"I am thinking is supposed to be hula dance, but can't be sure," said North without even blinking. He was far too used to the elves antics by now.

"This is why the yetis make the toys," Jack whispered to her.

"**JACK**!"

Jack turned just in time to see Jamie and the Burgess kids rushing towards him right before they tackled him in a hug, causing him to collapse to the bottom a pile of laughing kids.

Sophie had come running too, but she tackled Bunny's leg instead, giggling madly.

Alice watched this in amusement. The Insane Children often had the same reaction when Jack came to visit them at the Skool.

When Jack worked his way out of the mess he grinned at the kids. "Hey guys, miss me that much?"

"Of course," said Jamie in exasperation. "We haven't seen you since Easter. We didn't think we'd see you again till September at the earliest."

Jack laughed and ruffled Jamie's hair, making the younger boy squawk in protest, and the other children laugh.

The kids (sans Sophie, who was still hugging Bunny and babbling at him in toddler talk) then noticed Alice watching them all.

"Is she-?" asked Claude.

"She's gotta be," confirmed Caleb.

"You're Alice? _THE Alice_?" asked Pippa in awe.

Monty blinked in surprise at her. "But you're not blond."

Cupcake bopped Monty's shoulder, "And Jack's not an old guy, and the Tooth Fairy doesn't look like Tinker Bell. You should know by now that a lot of the mainstream stuff is wrong."

"Are you going to be a Guardian too, Alice?" asked Jamie excitedly.

Alice felt a little overwhelmed by the children all talking at once, but the last question caught her attention.

"No, of course not, I'm just here for the gathering," she said, giving Jamie an odd look.

"But I think you would make a great Guardian!" said Jamie enthusiastically. "Jack's told us all about how you can fight really good, and how you protect those kids in Wonderland, an-and how you saved those kids at the orphanage that one time!"

The other children all nodded in agreement

Alice glanced at Jack in surprise. "You told them all that?"

Jack shrugged sheepishly, and North clapped his hand onto Jack shoulder and laughed.

"Are you joking?" said North in amusement. "Is hard to shut him up, he is _very_ fond of you."

"Too right he is," agreed Bunny, sharing in North's teasing.

Once again the implications flew over Alice's head as the children clamored for her attention, but Jack glared at his friends in embarrassment.

"I'm not that bad," he snapped. "And I didn't tell the kids _everything_," he said to Alice, "for obvious reasons."

Alice nodded in understanding.

"Anyway," said Jack, eager to get the spotlight off of him. He pointed at each of the kids, and introduced them. "This is Jamie, my first believer."

"Hi," Jamie said brightly.

"Pippa."

"It's so nice to finally meet you," she said excitedly. "I have so many questions."

"Monty."

"H-hey," said Monty bashfully.

"Claude and Caleb."

"Hey, that's not funny, Jack," said Caleb, who Jack had jokingly identified as Claude. "I'm Caleb and he's Claude. Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, nice to meet cha', said Claude eagerly. "Jack says you've got a wicked knife. Can we see it?"

"Perhaps," said Alice in bemusement.

"And this is Cupcake."

"Hello," said Cupcake. "I was in the play version of your story a few months ago."

"There's a play?" Alice asked in interest.

"Yup," said Cupcake proudly. "I played the Queen of Hearts."

"Oh dear, she's an awful person," said Alice

That statement got all the kids begging for her to tell them about the real Wonderland characters.

While the kids occupied Alice, the Guardians moved aside to talk. "Where are Sandy and Tooth?"

"They'll be along shortly," said North. "They're just finishing up before they can leave their jobs."

As North had said, Sandy and Tooth arrived soon after (Tooth gushed over how well Alice was taking care of her teeth, and Sandy tipped a sand hat to her), and the party got underway.

North went all out with his party. The food was good, the games were fun, and everyone was enjoying themselves.

However, as Jack was avoiding the swimming pool like the plague while the others swam, he noticed that despite the fact Alice seemed to be having fun, she had remained stiff and guarded the entire time.

Jack had figured that might happen. Alice never said anything about it, but he had guessed she was far from her comfort zone at the moment. The real world is where all her problems had come from, Wonderland only reflected those problems.

As the party was winding down, it came out that Alice had yet to see the any Alice in Wonderland films.

This had scandalized the kids, and North had promptly taken them to a room with a giant T.V. to watch the two Disney versions of the film.

Throughout the films, Alice criticized all the things she saw as wrong, much to the amusement of the other viewers.

With the animated version, it went something like this.

"My sister was not that much older than me, and Dinah had black fur."

"The Tweedles are far more unpleasant than that. And they do not honk."

"Carpenter is much taller than that. And the Walrus is far less dapper, and much less intelligent."

"The Cheshire Cat is _not_ and has never been _pink_!"

"The Hatter is much too short, and his nose isn't big enough."

"I miss it when the Card soldiers looked like that. Now they look like walking corpses."

"The Cards are Zombies? Cool!" was Claude and Caleb's response to that.

"Well they got the Queen right, she did used to be like that."

"She should have just stomped on them when she had the chance. The court was a sham anyway."

It went similarly with the Burton version.

"My father was the dean at Oxford, he did no business in trading."

"My mother never cared for such things as corsets, in fact she rightfully thought they were abominations."

"I would even consider marrying with someone so dry and stupid as this Hamish character."

"My sister's name is Elizabeth, not Margaret."

"Kill him, you little twit! If any man dared cheat on my Lizzie, he would not live to see another day!"

"Why is this girl playing me so expressionless."

"Door Mouse is not female."

"Caterpillar's name is Caterpillar, not Absolem. And Wonderland has no Oraculum."

"Cat is not blue either."

"There are so many things wrong with this Hatter, I can not even begin."

"The White Queen has the appearance of a living chess piece, and where is the White King?"

"Are-are they implying a romance between me, a-and Hatter! _Never_! I'd rather swim in Ruin!"

"Why is she shrinking back down? She would have stood a much better chance against the Jabberwock if she remained a larger size."

"Don't tell me that twit still thinks this is a dream."

"Underland? Wonderland is called _Wonder_land!"

"The twit is a pathetic fighter."

"What are they thinking, letting the Queen live? She'll just come back."

By the time the movies were done, the children were exhausted. North loaded them onto his sleigh and flew them back to Burgess.

After they left Alice was still fuming at the portrayals of Wonderland in the films. Jack was next to her and made attempts to cheer her up, but she mostly ignored him.

Suddenly the two heard snickers and giggles coming in the direction of Tooth, Bunny, and Sandy.

When the two looked over at the senior Guardians, Bunny gave them a wicked grin. "Do ya realize where yer standen', mates?"

Jack and Alice looked around, but didn't see anything special until they looked up.

Hanging above their heads amongst the beach decorations was a sprig of mistletoe.

Realizing what that meant, Jack tried to dart away, only to be grabbed by a pair of Yetis and forced back under it.

"Uh uhh," Tooth tisked. "You stood under the mistletoe, that means a kiss is in order. That's the rules."

Sandy nodded in agreement, his face in a mock serious expression.

"But-" Jack tried to protest, but the yetis just pushed him and Alice closer together.

Sandy used his sand to create an image of the North Pole, North, a Christmas tree and a rulebook.

"Because we're at North's place, we have to follow the Christmas traditions," Jack translated aloud.

Sandy nodded, then gestured with his hands for the two to hurry up.

Jack was about to argue again, that he and Alice were just friends, when he felt something soft touch his cheek. He froze in the spot when he realized Alice was _kissing him_!

He remained frozen there for several seconds after she pulled away, still in shock.

"Aww!" cooed Tooth, happily, Sandy gave them a thumbs up, and Bunny laughed. "I think you broke 'im, Sheila."

Jack snapped out of it, and beamed Bunny with a snowball. The Pooka glared and was about to snap at Jack, but Tooth began to abolish Bunny for his teasing.

Alice let out an amused huff, before grabbing Jack's arm and dragging him away. "They weren't going to let us go till it happened, so stop fussing Jack, and think nothing of it. It is time you took me home."

As they left they failed to see Bunny slip the yetis and some elves a bunch of chocolate eggs as payment for hanging the mistletoe above their heads without them noticing.

So Jack walked Alice back to the tunnel to Wonderland, where she thanked him for the good time, and went on here way.

As Jack flew off he reflected on how great the party had been, but his thoughts still went back to the kiss, and he reached up to touch his cheek.

He and Alice were just friends. Right?

*A*A*A*

A/N Jack's finally starting to see Alice in a different light, but she still doesn't see it. What do you think? Too sappy?

_Disclaimer: I own nothing_


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

The instant Alice returned to Wonderland she set off the check that the Dollmaker was still in his prison. It would be just like him to escape the second her back was turned, and if he had, she may never find him again until it was too late.

Such thoughts ran rampant in her head on her journey there, and she soon found herself hurrying at top speed to her destination. Any enemy in her path saw a brief flurry of butterflies before it swept past them, leaving the entity to wonder if it had really seen anything at all.

When she reached the Infernal Train wreckage, she leapt all the way to the top and peered in though her window at the top.

Much to her relief the Dollmaker was still there, still trapped and silent.

He looked up at her, as if wondering why she was out of breath and flustered, but she ignored him. She did her usual check to make certain he was still secure, before leaving. Unless she was mistaken, there were several enemies she had passed on her way here that needed to be dealt with.

However, if Alice had stayed and looked again in a more secretive fashion, she would have seen the Dollmaker sit up and remove his now stump arms from their bindings and glance down at his one remaining leg.

Now all that stood between him and his escape was his half eaten left leg. The Time for his escape was nearly at hand. Then, everything will burn.

*A*A*A*

A few weeks after the Summer Solstice party, Jack found himself once again coming out of the rabbit hole outside the Skool.

Upon entering, he found that Alice wasn't there, but with all her alarms and wards around the building she no doubt knew he was there, and would be along shortly. So to pass the time, he made it snow in the Skool's main entrance, and he and the insane children were soon in the throngs of an intense snowball fight.

Jack had just been about to pelt Redhead with a snowball, when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was a floating grin of sharp, bloodstained teeth.

Jack put down the snowball and walked over to the grin. He knew from the stories that there was only one Wonderlander that the smile could belong to. He had yet to meet the Cheshire Cat in person, but Alice had assured him that Cat was her most trusted companion in all of Wonderland, despite also being the most cryptic.

Behind him the children paused in their game to see what Jack was doing.

As Jack approached the grin, the rest of the cat faded into existence. Jack was startled to see a skeletal and menacing figure, but given how Wonderland characters rarely looked how they were portrayed, he wasn't too surprised.

"Well, you're definitely nor pink or blue," Jack said in a friendly tone. "But it's nice to finally meet-"

"There is no time for formalities, rude or otherwise," snapped the Cat. While his grin was in place, his posture was stiff, and his eyes were serious. "An old evil of Wonderland has been freed. He comes leaving Ruin in his wake. Alice will not reach here in time. But I will hurry her along all the same."

The Cat vanished, and the Insane Children erupted into screams.

"The Dollmaker's coming!" wailed Corkscrew.

"He'll rip us apart again!" whimpered Muzzle.

"He'll kill us," cried Eyeless.

The other children were all crying similar outbursts of despair.

Jack didn't know who the Dollmaker was, but if he was getting this sort of reaction from the kids, he knew it was nothing good.

Jack slammed his staff to the ground, sending out a shockwave of frost that startled the children into silence.

"This Dollmaker isn't going to get any of you. Not while I'm here," he said firmly. "I want all of you to go to the gym, and hide in the alcoves while I fight him off. Leader, can I count on you to look after them?" he asked the little brunette.

Leader nodded in determination, but Jack could see she was clutching her teddy bear fearfully. "Come on you idiots," she said, leading the way to the gym. "We need to hide. That monster isn't getting us this time."

Once the kids were gone, Jack set out to better protect the place. He iced every door and window to the outside shut with a foot of ice, and then flew around the outside, coating the building in sharp icy spikes. He made the walls taller and coated them in spikes too. He then settled on the top of the bell tower and waited.

He didn't have to wait long. Faster than should have been possible, an enormous hulking figure approached the Skool. It looked like it had once been a marionette of man with brown hair and nice clothing. But the dripping black ooze that drizzled out of his mishapen mouth and empty black eyes ruined that image. The marionette's four arms and both legs looked to be made from a hodge-podge of wood, doll pieces, metal and ooze, that made his grotesque appearance even more so.

The second Jack saw him he shot a beam of ice from his staff in hopes of freezing the monster in its tracks. The ice slowed it for a little bit, but the black ooze the Dollmaker seemed to be made of melted the ice on contact. All Jack attack had done was bring himself to the Dollmaker's attention.

The Dollmaker reached out an impossibly long mangled arm, and made to swat at Jack as though he were a pesky fly.

Jack dodged it, and used his power to create a large icicle spike, which he jammed into the Dollmaker's hand.

The Dollmaker roared in pain, drawing his arm back until the ooze melted the ice. Jack continued to pelt him with icicles, which seemed to do some damage, but not enough. He had just managed to get one in the Dollmaker's eye, when the monster reached out quicker this time, and managed to smack Jack hard enough that Jack was sent flying backwards, and smashed a hole though the Skool's wall(somehow managing to avoid his own spikes).

Jack lay winded where he had landed, trying to force air back into his lungs so he could get up and fight again. As he did so he noticed that his left hand was burned and raw where the ooze had touched it when he had brought it up to block the blow.

Outside, Jack's icy defenses melted away upon contact with the Dollmaker's Ruin drips. The Dollmaker closed in on the Skool, and brought one of his large hands down on the structure, shaking it to it's core.

Jack had stumbled to his feet by then, leaning on his staff for support. He realized immediately what the Dollmaker was planning to do. The monster was going to bring the building down on their heads.

Knowing he had to protect the children rather than keep fighting, Jack shot down to the gym. The Insane Children were cowering in the alcoves as each blow shook the building till it rattled.

"Everyone get close to me!" Jack yelled, as he landed beside the giant hole in the gym's floor. Terrified, the children rushed to him and crowded around.

Above them, they heard the bell tower come down. The building was not going to last much longer.

Knowing this, Jack held his staff above the children's heads, and began to chill the air for his next icy creation. "Everyone get a good grip on either me, or each other, and hold on as tight as you can!" he ordered, and the children scrambled to obey. "When I count to three, we're all going to jump down the hole."

"But-!" Leader tried to protest.

"Trust me," Jack insisted, "I have a plan!"

The children nodded, and tightened their grips.

"One!" said Jack.

The sound of the other side of the building collapsing thundered to their ears.

"Two!"

The ceiling above them cracked and groaned. Dust and splinters rained upon them.

"**THREE!" **

As one, Jack and the Insane Children dove down the hole. Jack's staff shined a brilliant white, as he used it and the wind to save them from the impending fall.

The ceiling above the gym gave way, and collapsed down, sending debris showering down the hole.

The Dollmaker surveyed his work, and nodded in satisfaction. It was unlikely anyone had survived, and if any did, their grief would only fuel Alice's despair. Pity she hadn't been there to see it in person.

With that happy thought, the Dollmaker turned headed off to his next target.

*A*A*A*

Alice had been on her way to check the Dollmaker again when she got the alarms that Jack had arrived at the Skool again. Since the rabbit hole liked to appear there the most, Alice had changed the alarms so they could tell the difference between Jack, and a more malevolent intruder.

She continued on her way though the Dollhouse, figuring Jack could stand to wait a bit while she finished her errand. The Insane Children were sure to delight in his games, and keep him entertained until she got there.

However, when Alice reached the wreckage she stopped short at the horrible sight that befell her.

The top of the wreckage had been blown off, as though something had burst from it. The ground and wreckage were dripping with Ruin that left a clear path leading away.

Despite knowing that he wouldn't still be there, Alice rushed to the wreckage and peered inside.

What she saw there made her sick to her stomach. It was clear how the Dollmaker had escaped, as she took in the sight of the severed limbs left rotting in Dollmaker's binds.

She stumbled back, trying to get her head together. She had to stop him before he laid waste to Wonderland again.

She heard the familiar sound of the Cat materializing, and she turned to face him.

His grin was the same as ever, but the rest of him was grim, and for once his message was not at all cryptic. "He's going after the children."

The instant that messaged sunk in, Alice was racing off towards the Skool. She practically flew with her butterflies in her haste to make it in time. The alarms that something other than Jack had reached the Skool only pushed her to go faster, as she prayed that Jack could hold off the monster until she got there.

But alas she was too late.

When she got there, the Skool was nothing but a pile of rubble coated in Ruin. She could see melting ice, as evidence of Jack's no doubt valiant efforts to keep the Dollmaker back, but it seemed that it just wasn't enough.

She had failed to protect them again.

Alice desperately made her way though the wreckage, trying to find someone, anyone, who may have survived.

Finding nothing, she collapsed in despair, and tears welled up in her eyes.

But before they could fall, the Cat appeared next to a large hole in the floor, not far away.

Unlike before, the cat seemed calmer, and almost relived in his posture. "When outward appearances seem hopeless, perhaps it is best to look beneath the surface," he said smugly.

Realizing what he meant, Alice felt a flash of hope. She rushed to the edge of the hole and stuck her head down it.

Hanging from the bottom of the floor just beyond the edge of the hole was an enormous hollowed out icicle. And sitting comfortably (if chillily) inside it were all the Insane Children and Jack.

Redhead noticed her first, and pointed her out to the rest. "It's Alice!" she cried, leaning out the window the icicle had to let in air.

"Are you all alright?" Alice called to them. The feeling of relief was overwhelming her.

"We'll be fine," replied Leader, shifting herself next to Redhead. "Jack saved us, but he got a bit of a bump on his head from a falling board. We think he'll be alright once he wakes up."

Alice nodded. "Just wait, I'll get you all out."

She then turned to Cat, who was still perched at the edge of the hole next to her. "Fetch Rabbit," she ordered.

The Cat vanished, and Alice began to search the rubble for something to pull the children out with.

She eventually found the chain that had been used to hold up a chandelier, and swung it down to the children. She then pulled them up one at a time, along with Jack, who had to be tied to the chain.

By the time they were all out, the White Rabbit had arrived.

"Oh, goodness me!" exclaimed the Rabbit when he saw the remains of the Skool.

"Rabbit, there is no time for that," snapped Alice sternly. "I want you to take the Insane Children to the Pale Realm. Have the White Chess Pieces look after them, and keep them safe until this is settled. Then, I want you to go down the rabbit hole to the Warren and tell Bunnymund that Jack has been injured, and Wonderland is no longer safe."

"Y-yes, yes, right away," said the White Rabbit. He quickly led the children away, and Jack began to stir.

The winter spirit sat up and rubbed his head, wincing as he felt the bump on his noggin. Alice took notice of his other injuries, such as the Ruin burn on his hand, and how he was favoring his back.

"Thank you," she said solemnly, gaining his attention. "For protecting the children when I couldn't."

Jack stood up stiffly. "No problem. Sorry I couldn't stop the guy." He then gave her a concerned look. "Are you okay?" he asked. "How are the kids?"

Alice heaved a heavy sigh. "No, I am not alright. The Dollmaker is loose in Wonderland, and I have no idea where he is going or what he could be planning," she snapped.

Jack winced again, this time not from his injuries.

Alice then deflated some. "However, the children are all safe, thanks to you. I've sent them with Rabbit to somewhere they will be protected. At least until the Dollmaker is stopped."

Jack nodded with a relieved smile on his face. "Sorry," he said. "I didn't see which way he went."

Before either of them could say anything else the Cheshire Cat reappeared. "Better get moving," he said. "_Time_ is of the essence." Then he faded away.

"Time?" Alice asked in surprise at the Cat's abruptness. Then understanding dawned on her. "Time! He's going after Time!"

With that confusing statement, Alice took off to where she believed the Dollmaker would strike next.

*A*A*A*

A/N And now the action gets started. Jack could have probably gone for longer when facing the Dollmaker, but he had the kids to think of. He thought it was more important to protect them than continuing the fight.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Startled by Alice's abrupt statement, Jack flew after her as she bolted away.

"What do you mean, this guy's going after time?" he asked as he flew along beside her.

She glared at him as she ran. "You're not going, you're injured," she snapped.

"What? These?" said Jack, as he carelessly gestured to the injuries he'd obtained in his fight with the Dollmaker. "I'm an immortal spirit. These'll be gone in another ten minutes. And I'm not leaving you to face this guy alone."

"I can fight him myself," Alice snapped.

"But having friends means you don't have to, and we _are_ friends, Alice," he replied with determination. "Sooo…?"

Alice scowled at his insistence, but didn't rebuke him. "Time here in Wonderland is sentient, a person, and he is quite fickle. He can make the time here go faster, or slower, or go to a different time all together. It was he who cursed the Hatter to always be stuck at teatime after the Queen of Hearts accused the idiot of 'murdering time'. If the Dollmaker goes after him, there is no telling what damage it could do."

Jack, realizing how serious this was, scooped Alice up bridal style. When she yelled in protest he said, "We have to get there quickly, right? We'll get there a lot faster if we fly there. Just tell me the way."

Alice huffed in indignation, but seeing as they were going much quicker now, she began giving him the directions to Time's clock tower.

"Who, and for that matter, _What_ is the Dollmaker anyway?" asked Jack as they flew at top speed over Wonderland.

Alice's scowl deepened. "Go right," she instructed before answering, "He is corruption. He seeks to destroy Wonderland, and turn its inhabitants into mindless puppets. Last time he was free he went after the Insane Children, and was responsible for their scars."

Jack frowned, remembering the Dollmaker's attack. "Yeah, I can see that, the kids were terrified of him. But where'd he come from? I don't remember him from any of the stories."

Alice's scowl turned to shame. "(Fly higher here). Those stories are from my youth, the Dollmaker was put in my Wonderland after leaving the Asylum when I was eighteen. (Turn left)."

"Put in?" asked Jack. "I thought everyone from Wonderland was made here by you?"

Alice really didn't want to admit her shame for trusting Bumby, but she knew if Jack was going to help her, he needed to know what he was up against.

"You told me about the news article you found that told of my last moments in the real world. What that article didn't say is that I was also one of Bumby's patients, as well as the working there. (Go above those trees) When I got the job, Bumby offered to help me come to terms with my past, and help me forget the pain it caused. To my eternal shame I accepted his offer," Alice admitted. "But what Bumby wanted was to erase my mind completely, or in failing to do that, leave me in such a mad state that no one would ever believe me (go left). I later found out that he was doing it to cover up the fact that he was the one to set the fire that killed my family, and before he did that he- he did something terrible to Lizzie."

Jack, knowing Bumby's record, could guess what 'something terrible' could be.

"Then this Doll guy is the manifestation of Bumby's manipulations?" he asked, having trouble keeping his voice even.

Alice nodded. "And like Bumby, the Dollmaker seeks to destroy me, and turn children into his mindless puppets. At the very least, during his imprisonment I rendered him mute."

By this time they had reached Tundraful, and were flying above the glaciers.

Alice pointed towards the moon smoking his pipe. "Fly in the direction of moon. Time has a clock tower rising out of the far edge of the Deluded Depth."

Jack nodded and had the wind take them faster. Soon the clock tower came into view. The tower was a single point jutting out of the water, and appeared to be made entirely of clock faces and hourglasses. But as it came into view, they could see the Dollmaker had beaten them there. There was Ruin splattered all over the place, the clock faces were bent and broken, and the most of the hourglasses were shattered.

Seeing this, Jack pushed them even faster, and they entered trough one of the broken clocks, and Jack set Alice down.

Like the outside, the walls, ceiling and floor were lined with all sorts of time keeping devices, all spinning at different times and speeds. There was no light save for the dim glow of the clock faces, leaving the halls bathed in a dim glow.

"He's probably this way," said Jack, pointing in the direction the trail of destruction and Ruin splatters the Dollmaker had left.

"How kind of him to leave us a clear path to follow," said Alice sarcastically, as she and Jack followed the Ruin.

It wasn't long before they found an entryway to a large room that looked, if possible, even more wrecked than the rest of the clock tower. They immediately saw the Dollmaker making his way towards a gigantic gilded mirror at the other side of the room, and took up most of the wall.

The two were abut to rush towards him when a voice rasped out at them. "You must stop him!"

They looked to where the voice had come from, and saw a formless figure in a long dark cloak sprawled across the floor. The hood of the cloak was facing them weakly, but it was impossible to see any face within.

"Time!" shouted Alice, and started towards the figure, but its next words stopped her in her tracks.

"Never mind me, child! You must stop the Dollmaker _NOW_! If he passes through that mirror, there is no telling where or when he will go!" Time hissed. "Or what damage to the time-stream he could do while he is there."

Alice quickly changed direction, and both she and Jack rushed towards the Dollmaker.

Fortunately, the Dollmaker was hulking and slow, thanks to the damage Jack had been able to hit him with before saving the children. The two were able to intercept him before he reached the mirror.

Alice whipped out her Teapot Cannon and began firing it at the Dollmaker's legs, and Jack flew ahead of the monster, and created a sheet of ice to cover the floor, making it slippery and hard to maneuver on. Then he flew up to the Dollmaker's face and shoved a large icicle into the Dollmaker's other eye socket.

"That's for trying to kill the kids at the Skool!" he yelled as the Dollmaker reeled back in pain. He then had to fly away to dodge and incoming swipe from one of the Dollmaker's hands. But as he flew, he continued to shoot ice and frost at the Dollmaker's head.

Alice, meanwhile, was using her long ranged weaponry to attack the joints on the Dollmaker's legs, assuming they were the weak spots. Sure enough, after hitting it enough times with her Jacks and Pepper Grinder his right knee gave out, and the Dollmaker stumbled and flailed to regain his balance.

Emboldened by this Jack flew down lower, and helped Alice attack the joints, all the while dodging the Dollmaker's hands, which flew at them in retaliation for their attacks.

Finally the Dollmaker's other knee gave in, and the massive monster began to fall over. Unfortunately, the Dollmaker was falling directly towards the mirror.

"Get me up higher!" shouted Alice. "We have to change his direction!"

Jack hooked an arm around Alice's waist and they both shot upwards. As they rose Alice fired her Teapot Cannon at the Dollmaker, hoping the force of the tea blasts would change his direction.

But before they could make any progress, one of the Dollmaker's hands lashed out and smacked into the two of them. Jack, Alice, and the Dollmaker's hand all hit the giant mirror, and it began to glow brightly.

There was a brilliant flash of light, and once it faded only Time was left in the room.

Time slowly got up and limped over to the mirror. After examining it he nodded in satisfaction.

"The boy and the girl both hit the glass first," Time rasped. "No telling where their combined minds took the three of them, but at least it was not the Dollmaker's intended destination."

"Thank goodness for small favors," said the Cheshire Cat, as he appeared next to Time.

"You know there is a possibility they could never return," said Time dryly, not even turning to look at the Cat.

"You underestimate them both. Alice is stubborn, and Frost is a trickster. They will make it back. The only question is, what state will they be in when they do," said the Cat as he vanished.

Time looked again at the mirror, and nodded in agreement. They would be back… in time.

*A*A*A*

When Jack and Alice hit the mirror it was as if the world had exploded around them, sending the two hurtling through a vortex of color and light.

It felt to Jack like the first few times he had ridden the wind, before he had gotten better at harnessing it. The two were tossed every which way like shoes in a laundry dryer.

It was only Jack's hugging Alice tightly to his chest that he hadn't lost her in the vortex yet. The Dollmaker had, for a time, been tossed along with them, but somewhere along the way he had vanished from sight.

Suddenly the vortex opened up and Jack and Alice were freefalling in the open air. That sensation didn't last long, as Jack was hit by the familiar sensation of falling in a snow bank, made more painful than usual by the fact that Alice landed on top of him.

Alice quickly climbed off of him and helped Jack to his feet. When he looked around, it looked like he and Alice had landed on the edge of a Christmas tree forest. Tall evergreens were spread in front of them, all twinkling with lights. Away from the trees them was frozen tundra that stretched on for miles.

"Is this part of Wonderland?" asked Jack, taking in the new sights, and still dizzy from their rough ride.

Alice shook her head and shivered. Unlike in Wonderland, where even in Tundraful she never felt uncomfortably cold, this place chilled her to the bone. This was most definitely not her world.

Seeing this, Jack nodded towards the forest. "Let's head this way. With these lights, there has to be people. We can get you a coat and warm you up."

Alice shook her head stubbornly. "No, we should search for the Dollmaker. He came though with us, he must be here somewhere."

Jack sighed in exasperation at her stubbornness. "I hate to say it, but you said the Dollmaker would target people to turn into dolls. If he is here, he'll have gone to where there are people to do that too. Like the people who put up all these lights."

Alice grudgingly conceded his point, and they set off through the woods.

Eventually they reached the center of the forest, and the two saw a village that seemed to shine brightly with a cheerful and friendly light. Many of the buildings looked brand new, while others were older and sat on plots of land that looked as though they had been pulled out of the ground somewhere else and placed on top of the snow. But it was the building in the center of the village that made the two immortal teens stare in shock.

"I-is that North's Workshop?" asked Jack incredulously.

"I believe so," said Alice. She was less startled than Jack, but she was still curious as to what had happened.

In the center of the village was undoubtedly North's Workshop. It looked a little smaller, and newer, but there was no mistaking it.

With his eyes locked on the workshop, Jack started forward to enter the village, only to stop short when he felt a cold blade pressed against his neck.

Alice let out a shout of alarm and rushed forward, and there was a loud clang. When Jack turned around he saw that Alice had her Vorpal Blade locked against the one who had held a blade to Jack.

It was a boy. He didn't look like he was far out of his preteens, but there was nothing normal about him. Like Jack, the boy was white haired and pale, but his paleness gave off an unearthly glow that was luminous even amongst the shine of the village. He was clad in black form fitting body armor, and held a staff with a dagger made of a glowing diamond on the tip. The staff was what he was using to combat Alice's blade.

Jack leveled his own staff at the glowing boy, making him jump away from Alice, and take a defensive position…

… While floating in midair.

"Dude, you are stealing my thunder," said Jack in exasperation. It irked him to see someone with similarities to himself in combat with Alice.

Alice rolled her eyes at Jack's antics, but didn't take her gaze off the floating boy. "Do you greet all visitors to your village with a knife to the neck?" she asked the boy with sarcasm dripping from every word.

The boy lowered his defense a bit, before shaking his head and glaring at them.

'_What are you doing here?'_

Jack and Alice blinked in surprise, and exchanged glances. The boy had somehow managed to ask them a question without actually asking it.

"We're lost," said Jack honestly. "We were just trying to find where we are, and get my friend here a winter coat."

The glowing boy was about to reply, but another more familiar Russian accented voice rang out.

"Nightlight! Vhat are you doing all the way out here?"

A wide grin broke across Jack's face at the sound, and he turned to face the new arrival. Coming towards them was North. Like the rest of this place they'd seen so far, North looked different. His hair was black, he seemed thinner, and his beard was shorter.

But Jack didn't care, it was still North.

"North!" Jack called in greeting, hurrying over to meet his friend, much to the bewilderment of the glowing boy, who was apparently called Nightlight.

Alice was also confused. What was going on here? Why did everything look so different?

"North!" Jack called again when the leader of the Guardians didn't respond. "You doing some redecorating? Getting a few touch-ups yourself too? Won't the kids be disappointed if Santa doesn't look like-?"

Jack was cut off as North passed right though him as though he wasn't even there.

*A*A*A*

A/N Sorry this is late, my internet was down all day yesterday. Now I'm just being mean to these two. Alice's worst nightmare has broken free, and Jack is stuck in a place where not even his friends can see him. This is the part where the crossover begins to include the _**Guardians of Childhood**_ book series. They've been sent back in time to right after _**Sandman and the War of Dreams.**_ Hopefully, nothing in the next book in the series will screw up this story too badly.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. The Guardians of Childhood book series belongs to William Joyce._


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Jack stood frozen in shock in the spot where North had passed through him. This could _not_ be happening.

Jack finally unfroze just in time to whip around and see North pass through Alice too. Unused to the sensation, Alice jumped away and stared at North in shock.

North paid neither of them any attention, and came to a stop in front of Nightlight, who had been watching these proceedings with alarm.

"Nightlight? Vhat is vrong vith you?" North asked the glowing boy. "Katherine is looking all over for you."

Nightlight glanced up at North, and then back at Jack, who looked like the world had been pulled out from underneath him.

Jack let out a breathy laugh,and tried to collect himself. "Th-this is a joke, r-right?" he stammered. "Y-y-you're getting back at me for-for the prank with sticking the elves in the gingerbread houses, r-right?"

North didn't respond, but continued to look at Nightlight in concern, as the glowing boy kept shifting his attention between Jack and North in utter confusion.

"Right?" Jack was begging now. "North, you can see me. _Tell me you can see me! _**North**_**, PLEASE!**__"_

"Jack," Alice said in a soft voice. She could see that this was breaking her friend's heart.

"Vhat are you looking at, Nightlight?" North asked. He followed the silent boy's gaze to the spot where Jack stood. "There is nothing there."

Those words where like a stab in the gut, and Jack stared at his friend, leader, and his closest thing to a father figure with a feeling utter devastation.

Alice reached out to attempt to comfort her friend, but Jack took off into the air, and flew deep in the twinkling forest. Undeterred, Alice took off after him in a flurry of butterflies.

Once they were gone, Nightlight looked at North in horror.

"Vhat _is_ it?!" North demanded impatiently. "You look as though you've seen a ghost."

Nightlight gave him a look that said, '_I think I just might have._'

*A*A*A*

Alice found Jack curled up in the high branches of a particularly tall pine tree. When he noticed her, he looked down at her with fearful eyes.

"Yes, I can still see you, Jack" she said to ease his obvious fears. "And I am not going to stop. And if _you_ would stop and use that brain of yours, you could figure out why North cannot. You would also realize why everything, including your comrade, look so different from what we are used to."

Jack stared at her blankly, and she sighed. "We went through the mirror in Time's clock tower. Time said it could take the user to any where and any when. This is clearly the past, which is why all the familiar things look different."

Jack nodded slowly, but didn't look at all cheered up. "You're probably right," he said dully. "Still, North has always been able to see me, even when I was a new spirit. That kid could see us just fine. Why couldn't North _see_ me?"

Alice shook her head regretfully. "I don't know."

Alice then let out a loud sneeze, and shivered in the cold wind. Apparently they had landed on a past version of the North Pole, and her usual blue dress was not suited for the weather.

Realizing this, Jack jumped down from the tree and pulled off his hoodie. Under it he still wore his old white shirt from his colonial days.

With an apologetic expression, he held out the hoodie to Alice. "Here, wear this for now. I'm so sorry. I forgot we needed to get you a coat."

As a sign of just how cold she was, Alice took the hoodie without complaint and put it on. It looked strange for a modern (or futuristic, considering when they were) hoodie to be worn over a Victorian era frock and apron. But somehow, Jack thought Alice made it look cute. Not that he would say it out loud, for fear of his life.

Still even with the addition of the hoodie, it still wasn't enough to brave the weather for long. So the two teens headed back towards the village, and Jack steeled himself for the possibility of being walked through by his friends again.

*A*A*A*

When they reached the village again they went in without resistance. They walked through the buildings, and saw why the village looked so new, it was still being built. Yetis, elves, and a few people were bustling around carrying supplies, while others were on roofs and scaffoldings looking to be making the final touches on the village's construction.

None seemed to notice Jack or Alice as they moved through the village. Jack was starting to think they were invisible to everyone. But then a garbled warning came from behind them, and the two turned around to see a yeti towering over them looking stern and arms crossed.

Jack ignored the stern look, and gave the yeti a wide grin. "Phil! Great to see you!" he said, relieved that at least someone he knew could see him.

The yeti was startled by Jack's enthusiastic grin. He then said something in yetish that Jack understood as him asking who they were and what they were doing here?

"Sorry, right, you don't know me yet," said Jack. "I'm-"

But Alice swatted his arm. "Do not tell him who we are, you idiot, this is the past. Quite possibly before either of us was born. I don't know Time well, but one of the times I met him he gave me a lecture on meddling with time."

Jack winced at the thought. "Right, the Butterfly Effect. I saw that movie with Jamie." He turned back to Phil, who was looking at them in bewilderment. "Right, call me Jay, and her Lis," he said shortening their names, "We're from the future, and A-uh-Lis, needs to get inside, or at least get a warmer coat."

Phil looked befuddled by their claim, but upon seeing Alice's shivering form he waved at them to follow him.

He led them into North's workshop and told them to wait, before wandering off to find a coat for Alice.

Alice gave a sigh of relief to get out to the snow. She gave Jack back his hoodie, and enjoyed the warmth of the workshop. Despite being out of the cold she was still shivering slightly.

"Vhat do you mean dere are invisible children in the forest!" came a shout from down the hall.

Jack looked over at Alice. "Wanna bet they're talking about that us."

Alice nodded. "It is very rude to talk about others when they are not around."

Jack gave her a conspiratory grin. "Then we better go remedy that."

The two made their way down the hall until they came upon the room where North was shouting. When they got there they stared at the occupants of the large decorative room. It was Jack's fellow Guardians, but they all looked so different.

North was pacing the room, spouting theories to his audience about how invisible children could be possible, and if it was possibly the product of some new plot of Pitch Black's. Even Alice, who had only met North once, could see that this hot-headed young man had a long way to go before he could become the jolly Father Christmas she had met at the party.

Bunny looked like North had described to Jack when he'd inspired the prank that led the winter spirit to finding Wonderland. His fur was brown, and he wore a green robe and green egg-shaped glasses. He also carried a long gold staff with a green egg-shaped jewel on one end. He stood to one side of the room completely stiff, and watched North's rant with a detached sort of fascination, like a person watching someone else's kid throw a temper tantrum.

Sitting above the rest on a perched on top of a large gilded mirror and sharpening a sword was Tooth, but even in her crouched position Jack could tell she was taller than the fairy he knew. Her feathers were a bit darker, and were more reminiscent of a parrot than a hummingbird, and her wings were large and feathery, not the flitting fairy wings she had in the teen's time. But what really struck Jack as odd was both the lack of mini fairies flitting around her, and just how still she was. The Tooth he knew was constantly moving and barking orders to her mini fairies. This Tooth was still, and contemplative as North threw out theory after theory.

Sandy was also there, and seemed to have dozed off in a chair. Unlike the others, he was for the most part unchanged by the time difference. The sight of which brought a smile to Jack's face.

Nightlight was there as well, watching North silently from a corner. He hadn't noticed them arrive yet.

There were two other occupants of the room that the immortal teens did not recognize, but Jack could take a guess at who they were from North's stories.

One was an old man that looked like a classic wizard. He had a very long white beard, bushy eyebrows. He wore a long robe, and tall pointed hat. He held a wooden staff not unlike Jack's, except longer and more gnarled. He, unlike the rest was listening intently to North's theories, and occasionally threw in his own ideas.

The other was a pretty girl in her mid-teens who was sitting next to Nightlight. She had auburn hair pulled up in a ponytail, and was dressed in clothes that would keep her warm, but also allow her to move. She was writing everything that was happening down in a large book, and would occasionally lean over to speak to Nightlight about what was happening.

Knowing Alice hadn't heard of them like he had, Jack pointed to the old man first. "That's Ombric the wizard. He's the last survivor of Atlantis, and he founded Santoff Claussen. He's the one who taught North everything he knows about magic, and pretty much everything else."

He pointed to the girl next. "She's Katherine, Ombric's adoptive daughter. She's going grow up to be Mother Goose, but right now she's just the youngest Guardian in history."

Alice stared at the girl in surprise. As a child she had loved Mother Goose's tales, it was surreal to see a figure from her childhood as someone younger than her.

Jack next pointed to Nightlight, who had looked over at them when Jack had started speaking. "And we've already met Nightlight. He was the Man in the Moon's bodyguard when Manny was just a baby. He sealed Pitch away for a really long time, but eventually Pitch escaped. He's the first of the Guardians to take the oath."

Nightlight seemed startled by Jack's introductions. He got the attention of the other Guardians and pointed towards Jack and Alice.

The Guardians (minus Sandy, who was still asleep) looked over at the doorway.

"What is it, Nightlight?" asked Katherine, looking at the doorway in confusion.

"I see nothing there," said St. North.

"It could be, perhaps, these invisible children he saw before," said Bunnymund. His Australian accent was still there, but his tone was much more formal and clipped, and lacked his usual slang.

"Who is he calling a child," muttered Alice in distain.

Toothiana put away her sword, hopped down from her perch, and moved towards the doorway. She squinted her eyes and reached out a hand. "My animal side tells me that there is something is here," she said. But then her reaching hand passed through Jack's chest, making him shiver and step back. "But my human side, and my eyes see nothing," she finished.

"I am getting a similar sensation," said Bunnymund, his ears twitching. "It also feels as though someone has been messing with time, yet there is no disturbance to be seen."

"Nor can I see anyone," agreed Ombric.

"Then the only one who can see them is Nightlight," Katherine concluded.

Jack slumped. "None of them can see me," he said sadly.

Alice was unused to providing so much comfort in one day, but she reached out her hand and laid it on Jack's shoulder. "Perhaps it is for the best. Remember when we are, if they met you now it could mess up the future."

Jack nodded sadly, and Nightlight listened to their conversation with a confusion expression as he tried making sense of what they were saying.

Just then Phil appeared holding a royal blue pea coat with floral embroidery for Alice, and giving the two mostly invisible teens a disapproving look. He began lecturing them in yetish, much to the bewilderment of the room's occupants, most of whom only saw the yeti scolding thin air.

Jack grinned sheepishly at the yeti. "Sorry, Phil, but we didn't go far. Plus they were talking about us in here," he said, pointing to the other Guardians.

Phil huffed in annoyance, but he had said his piece. He then handed Alice the pea coat, which she took gratefully after complimenting the lovely design. The room's occupants let out startled cries as the coat in the yeti's hands vanished into thin air.

Their exclamations woke Sandy from his nap, and he looked around to see what had caused his comrades alarm.

Jack gasped when he saw Sandy's eyes rest on him.

*A*A*A*

A/N With Jack being invisible for 300 years, then finally getting friends who could see him, I think it would be devastating for Jack if they suddenly couldn't see him anymore. At the time the books takes place, only Sandy and Nightlight could really be considered immortal spirits, so that is why they can see Alice and Jack while the rest can't.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing_


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

"Sandy, can you see me?" Jack asked with bated breath.

Sanderson cocked his head, unused to the nickname, but nodded. He didn't know who this strange boy was, but he seemed nice enough. Though he asked strange questions.

Jack let out a whoop of joy, and grabbed the Sandman into a hug that swung him around the room.

The other Guardians were left puzzled as, to their eyes, Sanderson Mansnoozie began floating in a circle with a bemused smile on his face.

Alice shook her head at Jack's antics. She didn't have patience for this now, and the cold had not yet been banished by her new coat. "Jack, we should go. Your friends are not likely to be much help to finding the Dollmaker."

"Right," Jack said. He put Sanderson down, and he and Alice attempted to leave. Only to be blocked by Phil. The yeti didn't know what was going on, but he felt that the teens shouldn't leave until the Guardians were better informed.

"So there really are invisible children there," said Ombric, puzzled.

"I am guessing you and the yeti can see them, like Nightlight can?" St. North asked Sanderson and Phil.

Phil made a garbled noise of affirmation. He then reached down and pushed Jack and Alice back into the room so that they were not tempted to slip by him. Then he left and firmly shut the door behind him. But they could tell from the shadow under the door that the yeti was just outside standing guard should they try to escape.

Sanderson also nodded to St. North, then made an eye and a question mark out of sand.

"Because you, Nightlight, and that yeti are the only ones who appear to be able to see them," explained Katherine, once she understood Sanderson's question. "The rest of us can't see anything, even though we know someone is there. It is quite puzzling."

Sanderson looked at Jack and Alice questioningly. Jack gave a sheepish shrug, and Alice huffed in annoyance at the time they were wasting.

Jack knew that even if they answered the Guardian's questions it would be difficult of quiet types like Sanderson and Nightlight to convey their answers to the group. It would be far to easy for something to be lost in translation. So he walked over to mirror Toothiana had been sitting on, and frosted it over. Katherine oohed in delight as Jack's signature fern patterns spread across the glass.

'_Call me Jay, and my friend Lis.' _Jack wrote with his messy handwriting on the mirror with his finger for all to see_. 'We're spirits, we can't be seen unless someone knows our names and believes in us, or that person is a spirit them self. I think Sandy and Nightlight can see us because they're so ancient already they could count as spirits. I don't know about the yetis, but they've always been able to see me before.'_

Katherine read the message out loud so they all didn't have to crowd around the mirror. The Guardians nodded at the explanation, it seemed to make some sense and was no stranger than other things they had encountered.

"Then why can we not see you now that we know your names?" asked Bunnymund.

'_They aren't our real names. It might be better you not see us,' _Jack wrote. Even though he wanted desperately for his friends to see him.

"And vhy not?" asked St. North suspiciously.

Sanderson also made a sand shape of a man making a doll and a question mark.

Jack refrosted the mirror and Alice took over writing. _'We are from the future,'_ stated Alice with her loopy handwriting (which was neat despite her lingering shivers). She could see that the fastest way to get out of the room, and back on the hunt for the Dollmaker was to just tell the truth. Perhaps with a warning they could protect the children of the village at the very least. '_We fell back in time while fighting a monster called the Dollmaker. He seeks to destroy me, and all I care about. It is imperative we find him and stop him,' _she finished.

'_He takes children and turns them into dolls,'_ Jack added.

This made the Guardians alarmed.

"Vhat!" yelled St. North.

The other Guardians also expressed their outrage.

"Does this Dollmaker have anything to do with the Nightmare King?" asked Ombric seriously.

'_No,' _Alice wrote. _'He has no connection to him.'_

'_Unless they make one now,'_ Jack wrote with a scowl, '_I wouldn't put it past Pitch.'_

"You know Pitch Black?" asked Toothiana. Her feathers were ruffled and her eyes were suspicious. "And just how do you know him?"

"No," Bunnymund interjected sternly. "If these two are truly from the future (and my time sense says that this is true) then we must not know any details. It is bad enough that they are here. As the last Pooka to watch over the timeline, I cannot allow further damage to it then is unavoidable."

"But how can ve trust these spirits if zey could be allied vith Pitch in the future?" asked St. North, still suspicious. He did not make a habit of trusting those who would not give their name.

'_Lis has never had the displeasure of meeting him, but I have met Pitch before,' _Jack wrote to end the brewing argument. _'Let's just say the guy left a bad impression. I did not like him, and would NEVER ally with him.'_

"And how can we trust your vord?" protested St. North, still not convinced. "You vill not even tell us your real name."

Jack thought hard on how to convince them. They were his friends, his second family. The last thing he wanted was for them to think he was their enemy. But how could he convince them without possibly screwing up the future.

Then a light bulb went off in his head. He quickly frosted over the mirror and wrote the words that he knew would get the Guardians' attention, if not their trust.

'_Will you vow to watch over the children of the world?_

_To guard them with your life, their hopes, their wishes, and their dreams._

_For they are that we have, all that we are, and all that we will ever be.'_

The entire room went still at the words.

"That-that's the Guardian's oath!" gasped Toothiana in shock, her hand flying to her mouth.

"How do you know this?" asked Bunnymund. His desire to know how their visitors knew their sacred oath was momentarily overwhelming his desire to protect the timelines.

'_Maybe I'm a Guardian in the Future. Maybe I'm a close enough friend with one or more Guardians to learn their oath. Or maybe I was present at the ceremony of a Guardian being initiated, even then not just anyone could attend.' _Jack wrote cryptically. He knew he couldn't outright say he was their future teammate, but he could allude to it just enough to gain their trust.

'_This is getting us no where,_' Alice added impatiently. _'We need to go stop the Dollmaker, so if you would please call off your yeti, we will be on our way.'_

When that was read aloud, Phil made a garbled indignant protest through the door that he was no one's yeti.

St. North nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, yes, must go and make preparations," he said as he hurried out of the room, almost knocking over Phil in the process. "I vill go get the djinni, and prepare the sleigh."

'_Preparations?'_ Alice asked. If St. North meant what she thought he did, than this was far from what she wanted.

"We're coming with you," said Katherine brightly. She was excited for a new adventure, and the new stories she could write from it.

'_Absolutely not__!'_ Alice wrote quickly and underlined the message for emphasis.

"If this Maker of Dolls is as big a threat as you say, and from another time as well, then you can't expect us to sit by and do nothing," said Bunnymund in his serious tone.

'_The Dollmaker is __MY__ responsibility.'_ Alice wrote harshly._ 'It is bad enough I included Jay in my mess. We do not require your assistance.'_

"It is not a matter of whether you require it or not, Miss Lis," said Ombric sagely. "You will be getting it regardless."

Toothiana, Nightlight, and Sanderson all nodded in agreement with Ombric.

Alice was furious at them all. This was her fight. Her responsibility. It was her fault the Dollmaker was made in the first place. It had been her own negligence that allowed him to escape. Therefore, it was up to her to stop him and no one else. Jack was her friend, and he was allowed to come help for only that reason. He had earned that measure of trust. The rest of the Guardians of her present time were merely acquaintances, and these Guardians before her did not even have _that_ in their favor. They were strangers, and she could not have them getting in her way.

"Alice," Jack said in a calming tone when he saw the murderous look that was on her face. "It couldn't hurt to have them help. The Dollmaker will go after children. This is what the Guardians are _for_, to protect kids from what no one else can see or stop. Besides, even if we ditch them, they'd go after the Dollmaker anyway. If they find him before we do, then they would have no idea what they were up against. Wouldn't it be better if they were with us?"

Sanderson and Nightlight both nodded in agreement with Jack. They only wished to help.

Alice's murderous scowl deepened, but she could see Jack's point. There was nothing she could do to stop the Guardians now, short of removing their legs so they couldn't follow. She wasn't quite ready to go to that extreme just yet.

She returned to the mirror. _'If you insist on coming, Katherine cannot come with us,'_ She wrote. At least she could have some control over the situation.

"What!" cried Katherine in disappointment and indignation.

'_She's right,_' added Jack. _'The only ones the Dollmaker targets as much as Lis is children. If Katherine came it, would be like holding a steak in front of a starving dog, she would only be in danger.'_

"Then you two should not come either," said Katherine stubbornly, she was unused to being left out of an adventure. "Nightlight says you are children too."

'_We're immortal spirits-' _Jack started to write, before he was pushed aside by Alice, who was fed up at being referred to as a child.

'_I am not a child!'_ Alice wrote furiously._ 'I am over 150 years old, and even before we were spirits we were considered adults by our home's standards. And __you__ do not seem to understand the severity of this situation. This is not some adventure for you to write stories about, nor is the Dollmaker any less of a threat just because he is not your fearsome Nightmare King.'_

'_She's right,'_ wrote Jack when Alice let him at the mirror again. _'Not to mention someone needs to stay behind to protect the village.'_

Sanderson made an image of a shield and a question mark.

Alice sighed and wrote, _'I said before that the Dollmaker seeks to destroy me. In doing so he will target those I care about. I admit I am fond of one of the Guardians, and if the Dollmaker finds out there is a village under your protection he will stop at nothing to destroy it._ _He has already tried to destroy an entire school of children for the simple fact that they were under my care. He would have succeeded if Jay had not been there to rescue them.'_

That made the Guardians pale considerably.

Ombric nodded solemnly, now seeing the Dollmaker as a larger threat than he'd initially thought. "Very well," he said, "Katherine and Nightlight will stay to protect our new village, and I will return to Santoff Claussen to defend there. But the rest of our number will join you."

Alice nodded in satisfaction, and Jack wrote _'Thank you,' _on the last free spot on the frosted mirror.

*A*A*A*

A/N a lot of talking in this chapter, but it was necessary to get the Guardians on board with Jack and Alice. Plus it helped show the differences in their personalities between now and later.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing_


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

After the meeting, Ombric led Jack, Alice, and Nightlight up to the tower in the center of the village.

"This tower," Ombric explained to the two spirits, and Nightlight, "-was built to be a beacon of hope for the world. It can send out multicolored lights to end messages across the globe, and it's position here on the top of the world allows the tower to see anywhere on Earth. It is our best chance at finding the Dollmaker."

"I did not see this when I visited for the summer party," said Alice to Jack as they climbed the stairs. She was still shivering, but she hid it well.

Jack nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure something happened to it at some point, and North switched to using the Globe instead to keep track of the children of the world. Still, at least now we know where this place got the name the North Pole."

Nightlight who had been listening with interest, and chuckled in amusement when he heard the future name for the village.

When they reached the top of the tower, Ombric led them to a telescope and gestured for them to look through it.

Alice stepped up and peered though the scope, and began turning the telescope to search for the Dollmaker. She already had a good idea where to look.

She swung the telescope towards Europe and focused it on England. She soon found her evidence of the Dollmaker right where she thought he would be.

"Look," she said, stepping away so that Jack could peer through.

He looked through the scope and saw a vaguely familiar city. "London?" he asked looking up from the telescope. He could recognize it from the way it was during his early days as a spirit. But this time the city had one thing he never saw while flying over it to bring snow. Unseen by several of the city dwellers was puddles of Ruin ooze splattered around various parts of the city. What was most concerning was the fact that the splatters appeared to be deliberate.

Alice nodded. "The Dollmaker is most likely trying to lure me out. So he went to my old home and made it obvious he was there."

Nightlight and Ombric had both peered though the telescope while Alice and Jack talked, and saw the ooze as well.

"Oh dear," said Ombric when he saw the Ruin. While the citizens of London were unaware of the ooze and did not seem outwardly harmed by it, it was clearly malevolent. Wherever the Ruin lay the animals kept their distance, people's moods turned sour, and the surrounding plants withered and died.

Ombric straitened up and began to rush back down the stairs. "I will inform the others of your destination!" he called as he went. "Meet with them in the stables when you are ready to leave."

The three immortal youths shared a glance, and Alice looked though the telescope one last time to see if she could spot her enemy.

Finding nothing they headed back down the stairs. As they went Alice began fingering the handle of her Vorpal Blade in anticipation. The Dollmaker would not escape from her again.

*A*A*A*

When they reached the stables they saw Yetis, elves, and children bustling around to prepare supplies for the journey ahead.

St. North hadn't been happy about the Guardians splitting up, especially since they had just gotten Katherine back from being kidnapped by Pitch. But once it was explained to him he relented, understanding both the villages needed protection, and it would likely be better to keep Katherine away from this new monster.

As the Guardians explained this to him, Alice and Jack were more intrested in the machine standing next to St. North. It was a tall robotic man made of clockwork parts. It stood stiff, and emotionless as everyone bustled around the stable, readying St. North's reindeer, and gathering supplies.

Once the reindeer were strapped in their harnesses and the supplies were gathered, St. North turned to the mechanical man and said, "Djinni, turn into a sleigh."

"As you command," The robot intoned. Its body then shifted and changed until it turned into a sleigh not unlike the one North used in the future. St. North wasted no time hooking the reindeer to the sleigh, and tossing their supplies in the back.

"Wow," said Jack appreciatively.

"He could have said please," said Alice disapprovingly. She felt wary, as the djinni reminded her of some of the Hatter's monstrosities.

Bunnymund was also disapproving of their mode of transportation. "There is no need to take that mechanical toy," he said in the same serious tone he had been using the entire time. "It would be much simpler to use my eggomotive for transportation."

"Da," said St. Norh with a teasing gleam in his eye, "but the eggomotive cannot fly, and as ve are not knowing vhere this Dollmaker is, it vould be better to have transport vere ve can look for it. You are not afraid of flying, are you, rabbit man?"

Bunnymund's ear twitched in annoyance, but said nothing further. He then climbed into the sleigh and made sure to sit in the center where he would be least likely to fall out, and would not see much of the ground below as they flew. Jack was starting to find it hilarious just how serious the Pooka was taking everything. He could see why North had said that the Bunny he knew was more laidback than his earlier counterpart. He could also see that, even now, Bunnymund still had his fear of heights and St. North's flying.

As the Guardians and Alice began climbing onto the sleigh a voice called out, "Wait!"

They turned to see Katherine running towards them carrying a large handheld mirror. She held it out to Sanderson when she reached them. "Here, take this so the spirits can talk without going through Sanderson."

Sanderson smiled and accepted the mirror. When he did, Jack frosted it and wrote _'Thank you, and good luck.'_

Katherine nodded once she read it. "The same to you." She then turned to the rest of the Guardians and held up her book, which had an insect's face along the spine. "I expect to hear the whole story once you return."

St. North laughed. "Of course, of course. You vill have new story to write into Mr. Qwerty when we get back," he proclaimed. He then cracked his reigns and cried, "Yah!"

The reindeer took off at a trot and soon were rising into the air taking the sleigh along with them.

They began flying towards London at great speed, but Jack had to wonder why they weren't using a snow globe to get there instantly.

When he wrote his question on the mirror, North looked puzzled. "Snow globe that goes places instantly? I have nothing like that." He then looked contemplative. "But is good idea. I vill start vork on making them vhen ve return."

Bunnymund shot a stern glare at where he believed Jack was sitting, but all he was really looking at was an empty spot on the sleigh. "Stop that this instant," he demanded, prodding the area with his egg staff. "You are meddling with the course of history, and it is imperative that you stop this revealing of future events."

Jack was actually sitting on the edge of the sleigh behind Bunnymund, and watching him in amusement. When the Pooka had begun his lecture, he had straitened up, and began mimicking his movements comically behind Bunnymund's back, much to the amusement of Sanderson, and to a lesser extent, Alice. Alice rolled her eyes at his actions, but couldn't help the twitch of her lip. She knew him well enough to know that even when about to confront a monster, Jack would still try to bring fun and smiles as best he could.

Bunnymund saw the amusement on Sanderson's face and he cocked his head in confusion. "What is it you find to amusing?" he asked.

Sanderson just shook his head, and said nothing.

*A*A*A*

They made good time getting to London, and were soon flying over the area of the city were the most Ruin was spread around. It seemed likely that were there was more Ruin the Dollmaker had to be nearby. There was just one problem.

'_You know this is probably a trap, right?'_ Jack wrote on the mirror as they disembarked the sleigh.

Toothiana nodded in agreement once she'd read the message aloud. "He's right. My human side is telling me to beware. My other side is saying the same, but louder," she said, and readied her swords.

'_Even if this is a trap_,' wrote Alice with seriousness. _'I still have to confront him. This monster must be stopped at all costs.'_

Jack placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "And we're here to help. You're not alone Alice."

Alice refused to look at him, and his heart sank. He wanted to help her, but he didn't know how.

He then noticed that Alice was shivering under her pea coat. He quickly pulled his hand away guiltily. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you cold," he said.

Alice shook her head. "It's not you. I've had a persistent chill since the North Pole."

"Are you alright?" Jack asked as he looked at her more closely, checking for any sign of illness.

Alice pushed him away, and stalked towards where the splatters were leading them. "I'll be fine. We have to focus on stopping the Dollmaker. It is just a chill."

Jack followed after her, his concern still adamant. He knew the quality the yetis put into their work. If Alice as still cold despite wearing a yeti made coat, then something was wrong, and the coat wasn't to blame.

Sanderson noticed them going ahead, and he waved at the other Guardians to follow him as he lead the way.

The splatters led them into Hyde Park. It was night in London and the lights of the city did not reach into the area.

Everywhere the plants were dying from the Ruin spread upon the ground and in the trees.

Bunnymund was outraged by the death of the plant life. "Unacceptable," he said, examining a dying flower bush. "A complete waste. What is it about this mess that causes all that is around it such pain."

Alice paused in her steps until Sanderson caught up to her and held out the mirror. She fogged it up with her breath and wrote, _'It is Ruin. Do not touch it or you will burn.'_

She continued on after that ominous message, and the Guardians followed, taking care to avoid the Ruin puddles.

The trail led them into an old sewer system, where the dark pressed upon them from all angles. Sanderson's Dream Sand lit their way as they continued to follow the path.

Then from up ahead they heard a noise. It was not one they were expecting, and it filled them with dread.

"Momma," came the terrified voice of a young girl. "I want my momma!"

Her sobs and cries pushed the Guardians to rush forward to save the child, but Alice hung back.

Seeing this Jack screeched to a stop and looked over at her. "What is it?" he asked.

"This is no doubt the trap," she said, hurrying forward, but keeping her eyes out. "If we go rushing in we will play right into his hands."

Jack nodded and stuck next to Alice. She knew this monster best, so he trusted her judgment.

Sanderson had also heard her explanation, and had proceeded with caution. Toothiana was hesitant to fly ahead as well, as her instincts were screaming at her to be wary.

However St. North and Bunnymund had rushed forward at the first sound of a child in danger, and ran strait into the Dollmaker's trap.

The sewer opened up to a large open area filled with draining water mixed with Ruin. On the other side of the room was a little girl with long dark hair, frightened green eyes, and a ripped nightdress. She was hanging like a marionette from the pipes in the ceiling by steel wires. The more she struggled the more the wires dug into her skin, making her cry out and struggle harder.

St. North and Bunnymund rushed towards her to save her, but wires shot out at them. St. North was caught instantly, and was strung up like the girl, struggling and yelling in Russian.

Bunnymund was more agile than the Cossack, but a wire did manage to snag his furry ankle, and left him hanging upside-down.

The Dollmaker than rose up out of the water, and examined his catch with his empty eyes.

The girl screamed in fear, but Bunnymund and St. North glared up at him with as much dignity and anger as they could muster.

"The wrong catch," said the Dollmaker in an oily voice. "But they will make fine dolls just the same."

A burst of boiling tea hit the monster on his head. He turned to see Alice holding her Teapot Cannon, and standing on a cloud of Dream Sand next to Sanderson. Jack and Toothiana flew next to them ready for battle.

"It seems you've regained the ability to talk," said Alice acidly. "Pity, I enjoyed the silence."

The Dollmaker smirked with his nutcracker mouth. "Oh, you shall find I've regained a lot more than just my voice," he said smugly.

His hand lashed out at them and they all darted away to avoid it. But as she dodged, Alice realized in horror that the Dollmaker's arms and hands were no longer the hodge-podge of scraps that it had been in Wonderland. They were fully repaired, and far more lethal than before. A glance downward saw that his legs were fully repaired as well, showing no sign of the damaged she and Jack had done to it prior to falling through the mirror.

Alice saw red at that realization. In a flurry of butterflies she landed on the back of the giant hand and stabbed her Vorpal Blade into the monster's flesh.

The Dollmaker laughed at her attempt and shook her off. Sanderson caught her with his sand whip and pulled her up towards his cloud.

As she was being pulled, Alice threw Cards at the Dollmaker's face to stop him laughing. Jack was flying around blasting every inch with ice. Toothiana had split into several mini fairies and they were jabbing the Dollmaker with their swords.

The Dollmaker's skin was breaking open from their attacks, and Ruin flowed out of his injuries like blood, but the monster did not seem to mind.

"Do what you want, it matters not," said the Dollmaker. Then with a lightning quick hand he snatched Alice away from her Dream Sand tether.

The Guardians stopped in alarm (Toothiana seeing that something had been pulled away from Sanderson's tether). They stopped their attacks for fear of hurting Alice, but they remained at the ready for any chance to snatch her back. Below them, St. North and Bunnymund had gotten free, and had freed the hostage girl. They watched on helpless as the Dollmaker clutched one of their new comrades in his hand.

But the Dollmaker did nothing to harm Alice. Instead he cradled her in the palms of his two larger hands, using his thumbs to pin her wrists down so she couldn't fight.

She glared up at him fiercely, wondering what he was doing? Why hadn't he killed her yet?

As if reading her mind, the Dollmaker chuckled. "I'm not going to kill you, my little doll. Just watch."

Then before all of their eyes, the wounds inflicted upon the Dollmaker mended themselves until it was as though they were never inflicted. While this happened Alice felt a wave of fatigue and cold run through her, making the world spin.

"You feel it, don't you?" the Dollmaker said smugly. "All your power sapping away. It feeds my, little doll. It gives me strength. While you wither away like a flower in your friend's winter."

As this registered in Alice's mind what he meant by this, the Dollmaker grinned down at her. "You see, I no longer need to kill you, drawing power from your connection to your precious world will sustain me, and give me the freedom to do whatever I wish to this world. While you will soon be left as nothing more than a comatose husk to feed me forever."

The Dollmaker opened his hands and let Alice fall from them towards the water below, and then he vanished in a sea of Ruin down one of the pipes.

"No!" yelled Jack, and he dove after her. There was a burst of cold white light, and all the water in the room froze to solid ice.

Once they blinked the spots from their eyes, the Guardians saw a large pile of snow in the middle of the ice where Alice and Jack would have fallen. They picked their way across the ice towards the snow pile. All except Sanderson expected to see nothing but dents in the snow where the spirits would be sitting.

They were all very shocked to see a pale teenaged girl with dark hair laying in the snow pile, wearing the royal blue pea coat the yeti had given away.

*A*A*A*

A/N Wonderland is a part of Alice, but it doesn't exist before she was born. Because of that, she and the Dollmaker are the only thing Wonderland that exist at the moment in the past. And since Alice draws strength from Wonderland and Wonderland draws strength from her, the Dollmaker has tapped into that power and is draining it out of Alice to give him more strength.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

The Guardians stared down at the girl that lay in the snow.

She was very pale, sickly so. Her short choppy hair was dark and made her look even paler. She was slightly too thin to be healthy. Under her pea coat she wore a black and white stripped shirt and a knee length black skirt, over which she wore an apron.

Jack stared down at her in shock. He recognized the way she looked fro her description of herself she had given him.

"Alice!" he yelled, shaking her shoulders gently, not caring if Sanderson heard her name. "Alice!" he called again.

Alice stirred and opened her eyes and glared at him. "There is no need to shout," she said in annoyance.

"Who is shouting?" asked St. North.

Alice's head snapped around at that, and she and Jack stared at the Cossack in shock.

"You heard me?" she asked him.

"And can see you as well," said Bunnymund, looking down at he in interest. "I am assuming you are Miss Lis."

Alice gaped up at them. Then current events caught up to her and she pushed herself to her feet, swaying slightly.

Jack caught her before she fell back over, and she had to lean onto him for support. The Guardians who couldn't see Jack thought it was very odd to see her lean against nothing.

"Where is the Dollmaker?" she demanded. "Where is he?"

The Guardians exchanged looks. "He got away," said Toothiana.

"WHAT?" shrieked Alice.

She pushed away from Jack, but she barely took a step before falling forward again, and Jack caught her a second time.

Alice shook her head to clear it. "What is wrong with me?" she asked.

"Besides that they can now see you?" asked Jack. He didn't know how to break it to Alice about her change in appearance.

Sanderson took that matter into his own hands, and held out the mirror to Alice. She took the mirror and looked into it. She paled at the sight of her reflection, and dropped the mirror, which shattered on the ice.

"I look like I used to," she said, her voice weak. "Like I did before I…" Her eyes widened in horror. "He was right! He really is draining me!" Alice looked devastated by the realization. "What have I done," she whispered.

She had failed again, and now the Dollmaker was using her to wreak havoc onto the world.

"Not for long," said Jack with determination. "We'll find him, and we'll stop him. Then we'll find a way home. We'll get through this, I promise you."

His words brought her no comfort. Alice remained still and silent as the Guardians bandaged up the hostage girl and returned her to her home, and remained silent during the sleigh ride back to the North Pole.

As they flew back to the Pole, Jack felt useless. He couldn't be seen, heard, or touched by most of his friends. He was in a time that was not his own, and once again without any believers. And worst of all, he couldn't protect Alice from the Dollmaker, and that hurt most of all.

He could see the effect the monster's words were having on Alice's guilt. The Dollmaker's purpose in life was to destroy Alice, and from the looks of things he was succeeding without even lifting a finger.

Jack couldn't let that happen. If words weren't giving any comfort to Alice, then maybe actions would.

Jack stood on the very edge of the sleigh as they flew through the clouds. The moon was bright and full as he looked up at it. He could practically feel the Man in the Moon's attention focus on him as he stood in its glow.

"Is there anyway you could help me out with this?" he asked the ancient spirit who had, and would one day save him from an icy grave. "She shouldn't have to go through this alone. Can you please help me help her?"

The moon seemed to shine brighter on Jack for a bit, catching the other Guardians attention.

Then to their surprise a boy with brown hair and a blue hooded shirt and holding a staff could be seen standing on the edge of the sleigh with his back to them, looking up into the moonlight.

St. North nearly dropped his reigns in his surprise at the new arrival in his sleigh.

"Who are _you_?" he yelled, making the boy jump in surprise.

The Guardians all yelled in horror as the boy's jump sent him falling from the sleigh. Toothiana and Bunnymund rushed to the edge and peered down to see if they could spot him falling, and perhaps catch him.

When Jack fell off the sleigh he quickly used the wind to right himself in the air. As it did Jack's hair brushed in front of his eyes. Startled by what he saw, he pinched the hair between his fingers and pulled it down in front of his eyes. Instead of it's usual white his hair was now brown. Seeing that, he was willing to bet his blue eyes were now brown.

Realizing what the moon must have done, he pulled his hood up, and flew back up to the sleigh. When he reached the edge he saw Bunnymund and Toothiana peering over the edge.

He couldn't help but smirk at the sight. "Aw, you do care," he said cheerfully, bringing everyone's attention to him as he hopped back into the sleigh.

"Ja-Jay," Alice caught herself just in time, before revealing his name. She reached out and touched his face. "Your hair! Your eyes!"

Jack shrugged. "Manny did it, I think. My powers are still here, so I think it's just my appearance."

"But why-?" asked Alice, still startled by the change.

Jack grabbed her hand and said with determination, "Because you aren't going though this alone. I'm here, and I'm going to help you. We _will_ stop the Dollmaker. I promise."

Alice stared at him, and slowly the barest trace of a smile touched her lips. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had done anything like this for her. Despite her lingering depression, to see that Jack still cared felt nice.

The Guardians watched this go on, and were able to piece together what happened by what was said.

"Manny?" asked St. North suddenly. Ruining the moment between the two teens.

Jack and Alice quickly pulled away from each other. They pointedly ignored the knowing looks Sanderson and Toothiana had shared before glaring at St. North for his interruption.

Jack cleared his throat before answering. "Uh, yeah, the Man in the Moon. We call him Manny for short."

"Manny," said St. North again, as if testing out the name. "Hmm, is good nickname, much easier than Man in Moon. Manny it is."

Above them the moon shone a little brighter.

But unknown to any of the sleigh's occupants, a small Slithering Ruin was latched to the bottom of the sleigh. It would soon lead its master to Alice's little hid-a-way. Then she would suffer even more.

*A*A*A*

When they arrived back at the Pole, Katherine and Nightlight were waiting for them. The two were surprised to see two new faces in the sleigh when it touched down, but were quite interested to find that they were the two spirits, turned more human in order to be seen. However with their group of Guardians recuperating at the Pole, the two decided to go to Santoff Claussen to keep Ombric company and protect their home village.

Bunnymund had looked over Jack when they reached the ground and concluded that Jack's change in appearance was due to a glamour spell the Man in the Moon had cast on him. Because of this, Jack need not worry about being recognized by the other Guardians, as it would prevent tat from happening.

Meanwhile, Alice was not doing very good. Now that she knew what to look for, she could feel the steady drain of her strength and power slipping away with each passing second, leaving her feeling cold and tired.

She found that she could still use her powers and weapons somewhat. Her gliding was now rickety, and her butterfly dodges did not go as far anymore. When she tried to use the Teapot Cannon or Hobby Horse, she found they were too heavy for her to lift. Her Jacks fell flat when she tossed them, and the croquet ball did not fly as far when she hit it. She did not even attempt to use the Demon Dice, for fear of what it could unleash.

When the Guardians asked how Alice and the Dollmaker were connected, she only told them that the Dollmaker was something an enemy of hers had created by stealing some of her power.

The Guardians accepted this (especially when Bunnymund had insisted that they shouldn't know anymore), and set about planning to track down the monster again.

But it seemed the Dollmaker had gone into hiding. Not a sign of him could be seen through the telescope, nor by the news the moonbeams brought.

Alice took the lack of news hard, but she likely would have taken it harder if it wasn't for Jack.

The winter spirit had made it his job to keep her sprits up as much as possible. At nights when Alice couldn't sleep from fear that she wouldn't wake up again, he would sit up with her and entertain her with stories both of his life, and of things he'd heard of. To keep her from moping in the day, he kept dragging her into the games he played with the village children. Alice found it was impossible to say 'no' when there were so many hopeful faces looking up at her.

The village children came to adore them both very quickly. Jack was in his element. Playing games with the kids was what he did best, and he was able to teach them some games that had not been invented yet. And Alice had the imagination to come up with fun things that not even Jack could think up with. This made her very popular with the children, who had been raised to value imagination above all else.

The Guardians also grew used to their presence. Despite Bunnymund's insistence, St. North kept trying to trick the teens into telling him more about his future, Alice never fell for it, but Jack made a game of it. He would tell St. North outlandish things and see how long it took for the Cossack to figure out he was pulling his leg. The ex-bandit would laugh when he'd realized he was being fooled, but it would not detour him from trying again.

Bunnymund, on the other hand, took great extremes to keep away from them 'to preserve the timeline.' This of course made Jack try to cross paths with him as much as possible in order to see the flustered Pooka try to flee his presence. He also loved to poke fun at Bunnymund's social awkwardness and serious personality. He found the bewildered look on the Pooka's face hilarious when Jack told him to 'let him know if he ever needed help getting theat stick removed.' Jack half hoped he was nowhere near when the large rabbit figured out the joke.

Toothiana, on the other hand, bonded with Alice. The Fairy Queen knew what it was like to be perused constantly by someone who wanted to destroy her. The two developed their own form of girl talk, which consisted of talking about knives, swords, and other bladed weapons they had an interest in. This left anyone who was in earshot of the conversation quite terrified.

Sanderson has living proof that some things never changed. He was very much the same as he was in the future, still silent, friendly, and welcoming as ever. He never gave any indication to the other Guardians about Jack and Alice's real names, or any of the other things he would sometimes here them say to each other about future events. Instead he gave them warm smiles and laughed at Jack's jokes.

Things went like that for three days. In that time nothing changed. No children went missing. No Ruin was seen. The only thing that happened was Alice slowly getting weaker by the day.

But that all changed on the third day, in the distance beyond the evergreen forest the snow began turning black as Ruin spread across it. An army ranging from Colossal Ruin to Bitch Babies came stalking towards the village in droves.

Rising above them the Dollmaker strode towards the village with confidence. It was clear he had no fear of being stopped, and was intent on destroying the Guardians' new shining village.

St. North sounded the alarms and sent the yetis to the defense stations to protect the village.

Alice and Jack evacuated the children of the village to Bunnymund's eggomotive to sent them to the safety of Santoff Claussen.

Once the last child was on the egg-shaped train, the two teens ran to the edge of the evergreen forest and watched as the Dollmaker and his army drew closer.

Alice brought out her knife, and held it at the ready. She would not fail this time.

*A*A*A*

A/N The big battle is next chapter. Also, the spell on Jack right now keeps him from being recognized by the Guardians, that is why they never make the connection between the spirit Jay and Jack Frost.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

The Guardians, the djinni, and an army of yetis and elves soon joined Alice and Jack at the edge of the forest, readying themselves for the oncoming fight. All they needed now was the signal to attack.

"The kids are safe," Jack informed them as they arrived. "We got them all onto the eggomotive to Santoff Claussen."

St. North nodded when he heard that. "Good," he said simply. "They vill tell Nightlight, Ombric, and Katherine about what is happening here."

Toothiana moved to stand next to Alice, her swords out and ready. "Are you going to be alright?" she asked in concern.

Alice nodded. She may be much weaker now, but wild horses couldn't drag her away from this fight. "I'm fine," she said stiffly. "I'll be better once the Dollmaker looses his head."

Toothiana nodded in agreement. With that St. North gave the signal and they all rushed forward to stop the Dollmaker's army.

The yetis and elves were all armed with swords and hammers, and rushed into battle with the army of Ruin. The Ruin was relentless, but the yetis were strong and clever, and the elves were hard to catch and unpredictable, so the Ruin forces were being taken down.

Sanderson rose up on his cloud and began using his sand whips to lash out at the flying enemies, like the Bitch Babies and the Drifting Ruin. It was found that his Dream Sand had an interesting effect on the Ruin. The two seemed to cancel each other out. His sand would vanish on contact with the Ruin, but the Ruin also seemed to dissolve upon itself on contact. When he used his whips against the Dollmaker it seemed to burn the monster's skin.

St. North had thrown himself into the fight, hacking and slashing with his swords until all the Ruin around him was destroyed. His sword skills were at their peek, and he used them to their greatest ability. He made sure to go after the bigger Ruin forces, like the Colossal Ruin and Doll Girls. When he got close to the Dollmaker he turned his swords on the Monster's ankles, attacking the joints, like Jack and Alice had done before.

Toothiana split into hundreds of mini fairies and shot through the Ruin forces like a knife through butter. Many of her mini selves helped the yetis and elves with the Ruin, but the majority focused their attention on attacking the Dollmaker. Their small size and speed made it nearly impossible for the Dollmaker's large limbs to reach her.

Bunnymund ate a piece of chocolate, and (much to Jack and Alice's surprise) he began acting much more like his future self. North had explained to Jack that chocolate had an odd effect on a Pooka's personality and skills. The reason the Bunny they knew was so different from the one of this time is because he no longer denied himself from eating it. Upon eating the chocolate at the battle, Bunnymund's fur began sporting the familiar markings that adorned the future Bunny's fur. His Australian accent became more rugged as he attacked the Ruin Army to make his way to the Dollmaker, and he pulled a boomerang out of his robe and began throwing it with great precision at the Dollmaker on top of using his staff to fend off the Ruin.

"That's a good look for you!" called Jack to the Pooka as he flew overhead. Similar to Sanderson he had found that the snow he had lace with his power of fun did a lot more damage than his regular ice. It seemed that the good feelings caused by dreams and fun was painful to the Ruin, so he mad sure to use it as best he could against them. But his main focus in the fight was the Dollmaker. The sooner he went down, the sooner Alice would get better, and that was what he wanted most. He sprayed his fun filled frost into the Dollmaker's eyes, making the monster roar in rage and lash out blindly. Jack was able to dodge his hands and continued pelting the monster with snow and ice.

Despite her weakened state, Alice tore through the Ruin with the ferocity of a woman scorned. Anything that stood in her way was dead before it realized Alice was there. She was focused on getting to the Dollmaker to the point of tunnel vision. She reached him in record time and began pelting him with her Cards, Croquet Balls, and Pepper Grinder.

The Dollmaker was furious about all the attacks he was feeling and made a swipe with his hands at St. North and Alice. St. North was able to jump out of the way, but Alice, who was still not used to her weakened limits, could not dodge fast enough.

Just as the monster's hand came down upon her, Alice found herself being snatched away by four of Toothiana's mini fairies. The four of them carried her up into the air and held her steady a safe distance from the Dollmaker's flailing arms.

"Thank you," Alice said breathlessly. The mini fairies nodded, accepting her thanks, but made no move to put her down.

"Are you helping me to fly?" Alice asked, when she realized what the fairies' intention was.

They nodded again. Alice smirked, as this would help her to attack the Dollmaker at points higher than his ankle. She began giving the mini fairies instructions and she flew through the air to attack the Dollmaker more directly.

The fight up to that moment had been evenly matched, and neither side had been gaining an edge.

But then the sound of Bunnymund's eggomotive pulling into the village reached their ears. Out of the forest came Ombric, Nightlight, and many of the forest creatures of Santoff Claussen to help with the fight.

Ombric began using his spells to fend off the Ruin, and Nightlight was quick with his diamond dagger to slice through their enemies. The animals of Santoff Claussen made good use of their claws and teeth, as they focused their attacks on the Bitch Babies and Doll Girls so as not to be burned by the Ruin, though they did fight those too.

Katherine was also there on her giant goose, Kailash. She flew her goose over the battlefield, and began gathering up the more injured elves and yetis and flew them back to the village for healing.

The reinforcements began turning the tide of the battle, and the Dollmaker was furious. He began to attack the Guardians and their allies with even more ferocity than before. They were able to dodge his blows, but his constant attacks were starting to wear them out. It was only a matter of time until he got a lucky shot.

Alice, who had been relentless in her attacks, had the fairies hover her near the Dollmaker's head and shoot him with her Pepper Grinder.

The Dollmaker leveled his empty dripping eyes at her as she shot her attacks. The Dollmaker, in his arrogance thought this attack would be an easy win. The destruction of the village was to make Alice suffer more, before she fell comatose from his draining. The village was one of children and toy makers, not people that were able to put up this much of a fight.

"**You** _**BITCH**_!" he snarled at her, finally fed up with his clear loosing of the fight.

His Ruin covered fist came flying towards her at a speed the mini fairies couldn't dodge. Alice froze as she waited for the inevitable blow to fall.

"_**NO!"**_

Alice and the fairies found themselves being shoved out of the way.

As they fell, Alice watched what happened next in slow motion. Jack had pushed her and the fairies out of the way just in time. In doing so he put himself in the direct path of the Dollmaker's oncoming fist.

The limb slammed into Jack with the force of an oncoming train, and sent him flying though the air. The velocity sent the winter spirit all the way into the village and hitting the tower in the center. The Ruin that had soaked the Dollmaker's fist was burning him as he fell from the impact and into the village below.

They tumbled through the air before the fairies were able to steady them, and return Alice to the ground.

But Alice noticed none of this. She couldn't process what she'd seen, and stood still as a statue in the battlefield. All she could see was Jack getting hurt in her place. Jack, who had been kind to her from the day they'd met, while she had been openly hostile. Jack, who always greeted her with a friendly smile, and appreciated her talents, and her courage. Jack, who had put so much time and energy into trying to make her smile. Jack, who had trusted her to tell her his past, even though he was scared. Jack, who had comforted her when she was distressed, and in need of a shoulder to lean on.

Jack, who without her realizing it, had stolen her heart.

Jack who might now be dead, because of this monster.

With this realization Alice saw red, and she screamed in rage.

The Guardians and their allies drew back as a fountain of blood seemed to erupt around Alice. When it fell, her entire body and clothes were pure white, and her arms and dress were stained with blood. Red also stained her cheeks, as if her now pitch black eyes had been crying tears of blood. Her black hair billowed around her face, as she glared up at the cause of all her pain.

The Dollmaker was not going to live another day.

To Alice, the world around her had been leeched of color, but she paid it no mind as she shot over to the Dollmaker at a unmatched speed. She used her Vorpal Blade to slice through the monster's ankles one at a time, causing him to fall onto his back. The Dollmaker was so startled by the ferocity of Alice's rage, that he was not able to effectively defend himself from her assault.

Once the Dollmaker had hit the ground, Alice was on top of him. She was using every weapon in her arsenal, even the ones she had previously been too weak to use. The Dollmaker tried to stop her, but she blasted his hands away with her Blunderbuss, and Jabberwock' Eye Staff.

When she reached his head she aimed all her weapons at his throat, using her Ice Wand more than the rest. Then with one final blow she slit his now heavily damaged throat with the Vorpal Blade. The monster let out one final gurgle and died.

The remaining Ruin forces let out piercing shrieks as they melted away. A cheer rang out over the battlefield, the fight was over.

Alice returned to her human-like state, and climbed down from the Dollmaker's body.

The Guardians swarmed around her in worriedly, asking if she was all right. She waved them off, and her eyes fell upon a wonderful sight. Jumping off the back of Kailash with Katherine was none other than Jack. He seemed a little worse for the wear, but he was alive, and he was running towards her, concern etched into his face.

Alice managed to give him a bright smile, before collapsing forward in a dead faint.

And behind her, much to the Guardians' horror, the Dollmaker's body began to heal itself.

*A*A*A*

A/N And there's the big battle, but it's not over yet. The Dollmaker still had a hold of Alice's power, and he'll leech it away from her in order to heal himself. You'll see if the Guardians can stop that from happening in the next chapter.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing_


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

When Jack saw the Dollmaker about to strike Alice, it was like his sister at the pond all over again. Someone he truly cared about was in danger. He didn't hesitate for a moment in his actions.

"_**NO!"**_ he yelled as he rocketed towards Alice in a desperate attempt to save her. He shoved her aside with just a second to feel triumph for saving her, before the Dollmaker's hand slammed into him harder than he had ever been hit before.

The Ruin that covered the Dollmaker's fist burned Jack like acid in the places it hit him, and he was sent flying towards town. The Wind tried to slow him down, but there was only so much it could do.

Then Jack's flight was cut off abruptly as he hit something hard enough, that he was sure some of his ribs at least cracked.

'_Oh_' he thought hazily. _'I must have hit the North Pole_'

He then fell the rest of the way to the ground. Jack lay dazed where he'd fallen. He knew he was still alive, but for the moment it was too painful to move. The Wind swirled around him worriedly, and Jack knew there was not much he could do until his wounds healed themselves enough that he could stand again.

The sound of large wings reached his ears, and he was able to turn his head enough to see Katherine and Kailash land nearby. Katherine leapt from her giant goose, and ran over to him.

When she reached him, she fell to her knees beside him and started wringing her hands as her eyes darted over his prone form. "J-Jay, are you-?" she stammered out.

Jack realized he must look pretty bad for levelheaded Katherine to react like this.

He heaved in a painful breath and said, "I'll be alright. Just give me a minute."

"B-but, your injuries," Katherine protested.

"I'm immortal," Jack said with a wry grin. "These'll be gone in no time. It helps that I'm in the snow. Since it's tied to my powers I can draw strength from it."

Hearing that, Katherine quickly began piling snow on top of his injuries, which helped them heal faster. As she did so, she kept repeating two words under her breath. _"I believe, I believe, I believe."_

The snow, and her belief began to work their magic, and Jack could slowly feel his strength retuning. He sucked in a far less painful breath and asked, "Is Lis alright?"

On cue, a rage filled scream reached their ears from the direction of the battlefield.

"Guess that answers that question," Jack muttered to himself. "If she's alright enough to be that angry, she'll be fine."

Katherine looked down at him with a wane smile. "You must really love her," she said softly.

Jack's brain shut down, and despite his still healing injuries, he shot up into a sitting position. "Love?" he asked in utter shock.

He immediately regretted his sudden movement, and winced as the pain caught up with him. Katherine laughed at his reaction.

"Yes, love," she said as she tried to push him back down and put more snow on his injuries. "You clearly do."

"I-I! W-we're just-" he tried to say. He refused to lay back down. His injuries still throbbed, but they were no longer paralyzing.

Katherine smacked his arm, making him wince. "You are most certainly not 'just friends,' if that's what you're trying to say. I've seen the way you look at her, and how you look out for her. You care about her far too much to just be friends."

This was too much for Jack's brain to process all at once, and his face was turning beat red as he realized how much of what Katherine said was true.

In an attempt to distract Katherine, he picked up his staff and began to use it to hobble back towards the battlefield. "L-lets just go help the others," he said.

Katherine sighed in amusement. "We'll ride on Kailash, you really shouldn't be moving too much until you're feeling better."

Jack nodded stiffly, and climbed onto the large gooses back behind the girl.

Kailash took to the skies, and soon they were soaring over the forest, back to the fight. As they got close, they saw Alice's rampage, and the state she was in.

Katherine watched the other girl tare into the Dollmaker with horrified fascination. "W-what happened to Lis?" she asked in concern, and a little fear for the girl.

Jack winced. "She told me about this. She calls it Hysteria. It's a berserker mode she can tap into whenever she's either really angry or about to die. It makes her stronger and harder to hurt, but it does look really creepy."

"That's an understatement," muttered Katherine as they flew closer. Seeing Alice slaughter the Dollmaker single-handed was more than 'really creepy.'

Just as they were about to land, when Alice dealt the final blow. Below them the Ruin melted and died away, leaving it clear who the victors of the battle were.

Kailash landed in the snow, and Jack jumped of her back and ran strait towards Alice.

When she saw him, her face broke into a brilliant smile that made Jack pause. In that moment, he knew he could not deny Katherine's observations. Because there in that moment, Alice's smile was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Then Alice's eyes rolled back into her head, and she collapsed in the snow.

"Lis!" yelled Jack in alarm. He ran over to where she'd fallen and scooped her up into his arms.

Alice was still alive, but she was freezing cold. Her skin was so pale it was practically translucent, and there were dark bags under her eyes.

Ombric crouched beside them, and began to look Alice over. Under his breath, the wizard was muttering about which remedy would be most effective, and what wouldn't work.

Before he could administer anything, Toothiana let out a cry of alarm. She had reformed into her full-sized self, and was looking at the Dollmaker's body with terror in her eyes.

The other's followed her gaze, and saw the giant marionette monster's body slowly start to repair itself from the damage of the battle.

"He's still draining her!" hissed Toothiana furiously. She stabbed her sword into the Dollmaker's body in frustration, but the wound slowly began to close like the others.

Jack was gently shaking Alice, but she remained unresponsive. "Lis! Lis wake up!" he said worriedly.

"I don't think she can," said Bunnymund, his Australian accent still thick, but slowly going back to its formal tone. "This beast did say that his drain o' her powers would eventually lead her to a comatose state. Ah'll bet it's now reached that point."

Jack cradled Alice to his chest at the news.

St. North let out a curse in Russian, and began pacing in the snow, while keeping a wary eye on the Dollmaker's healing process. "Ve cannot let this beast reform himself. If he does, ve vill never be free of fighting him. Dere must be some vay to free Liz from his hold."

Ombric was muttering a healing spell for Alice, which made her look better for an instant, before all the progress faded back to her sickly state. The wizard sighed in defeat. "I agree. Lis must be freed from his influence, otherwise all attempts to heal her will vanish as soon as they are made."

Bunnymund's ear twitched as he tried to think up a solution. The chocolate was starting to wear off, and he was going back to his stiff self. "To my knowledge, nothing like this has ever happened before. I am unable to come up with a solution."

Sanderson made sand forms of Alice and the Dollmaker with a string attaching them.

"Maybe if we know more about how he's doing it?" Katherine translated for him.

"That might not be wise, for time's sake," said Bunnymund, but it sounded weak even to his ears, and the others ignored him.

Jack was still hugging Alice too him. When the Guardians looked to him for answers, he shook his head. "Lis's power comes from a world she created out of her own imagination and made real. A bad man tried to take control of her back before she became a spirit, and tried to manipulate her and her world. Those manipulations took form and became the Dollmaker. Even though Lis didn't make him, the Dollmaker is still part of her world, and is connected to it like she is. It's through that connection that he's draining her. The connection can't be broken without killing her," he explained.

Ombric looked down at the sleeping girl, impressed. "That is very advanced magic, and for her to do it at such a young age, it's unfathomable."

"Impressive as it is, it does nothing to help us save her," said Toothiana urgently. The Fairy Queen was not about to loose her new friend to this monster.

As she said that the Dollmaker's fingers twitched, but the monster did not awaken. He was still not healed enough to revive. The Guardians jumped at the movement all the same.

"Toothiana is right," said Bunnymund ugently, "If we do not help her soon, this monster will rise again, and she will likely sleep forever."

The last sentence Bunnymund spoke seemed to trigger a reaction from Nightlight and Sanderson. They shared a look of realization, and both began trying to tell the Guardians their idea. But between each of their own unique ways of speaking, it was impossible to tell what they were saying.

St. North waved his hand at the two of hem to stop them. "One at a time, one at a time," he said. Once the two settled down he turned to Nightlight. "Now, vhat is big idea?"

'_The Kiss of Goodnight,'_ said Nightlight excitedly in his own way. _'The magic of it can take away all hurts. It is what I used to wake Katherine from the nightmares Pitch Black trapped her in. It may wake Lis as well.'_

Sanderson nodded in agreement, and made sand symbols to show that such a kiss was very powerful magic.

"So like Sleeping Beauty?" asked Jack, incredulously.

"Sleeping Beauty?" asked Katherine.

"That could vork," said St. North, jumping on the idea, and ignoring the exchange between the youths.

"But who could do it so that it's powerful enough?" asked Bunnymund.

All the other Guardians looked over at Jack.

"Someone who loves her very much," answered Katherine, looking Jack in the eye. "That should make the kiss powerful enough to save her."

Jack turned red at her blunt statement, but if it saved Alice he was willing to try it. He glanced at Alice's sleeping form, working up the courage to do it.

The Dollmaker gave a full body shutter, and seemed almost healed.

"If you are going to kiss the girl, I would suggest you do it now," said Bunnymund, eyeing the monster with alarm.

Jack glared at him for that statement, but he understood the need to hurry.

He looked down at Alice's face again, closed his eyes, and kissed her on the lips.

Behind them the Dollmaker shuttered in pain and cried out. Then he seemed to catch fire and burn away until there was nothing left.

Alice gasped and opened her eyes. When she saw was happening she was surprised. But then she closed her eyes again and leaned into the kiss, pulling Jack closer as she did so.

There was a brilliant flash of light, and the other Guardians had to shield their eyes from it. If they hadn't they would have seen an instant where Jack and Alice's appearance changed. Alice's complexion became healthier and her black and white dress melted away into a blue frock. They also missed Jack's brown hair turn white, and his skin turned pale.

When the light faded, Jack and Alice were gone, and the Guardians looked around for them in puzzlement.

Before they could get alarmed, Bunnymund straitened up. "I sense nothing more wrong with the time stream. I believe they have returned to their own timeline."

Toothiana's wings drooped. "They didn't even say goodbye."

Sanderson, Nightlight, and Katherine all were similarly disappointed.

However St. North gave a happy laugh. "No need to make sad faces," he said jollily "If there is one thing I learned vhen I spoke to them about the future, it is that ve _vill_ see them again. And _that_ is something to look forward too."

That cheered them all up, and they made their way back to their new village. If they would meet their friends again in the future, they had best work to make that future bright. First order of business was to put an end to the Nightmare King' reign of terror.

*A*A*A*

A/N And there ya go. All that's left is the epilogue. I know the goodnight kiss thing is cheesy, but it's canon. It was how Nightlight was able to save Katherine from an eternal sleep at the end of _Sandman and the War of Dreams._

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._


	20. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Jack and Alice didn't even notice the changes around them. They would have continued to be oblivious for a while if a smooth voice didn't interrupt them.

"Enjoying yourselves, are we?"

The couple broke apart to see that they were back in the remains of the Skool. There were several yetis bustling around and rebuilding it, but that is not what got their attention.

Standing a few feet from them was the Guardians of their own time, as well as the White Rabbit, and the Cheshire Cat. All of who were looking at the two teens with expressions varying from shock to amusement.

Alice gave the Cheshire Cat an annoyed glare. "I was enjoying myself, Cat. Was it necessary to interrupt us."

Jack turned red at that, and Bunny burst out laughing at the look on his face. The smug looking Pooka then held out a paw towards a shocked North, who handed over twenty bucks without seeming to realize it.

"Vhy does this seem familiar," asked North, as he got over his surprise.

Sandy smiled brightly and used his sand to write the names Jay and Lis.

The other Guardians' jaws dropped in realization. "That was you?" asked Tooth in surprise.

"Wait, hold on, what are you guys doing in Wonderland," Jack asked as he pulled himself to his feet, and helped Alice to hers.

"This gumby showed up in my Warren sayin' you were hurt, an' yur little girlfriend went after some bad guy," said Bunny, gesturing to the White Rabbit.

"Bunny then got the rest of us together," said Tooth. "And we all came here to rescue you. But when we got here the Cat said you were somewhere we couldn't reach you." She then glared at the Cat's bloodstained grin. "You really should brush your teeth more."

"Da," said North, taking over the story. "But the Cat said you vould be back soon enough vith no more bad guy, so I brought over yetis to fix school for children."

The White Rabbit twitched nervously and asked, "Are you alright Alice?"

"I'm fine," said Alice. She then turned to North. "Thank you for repairing the Skool. The insane children will appreciate it, I'm sure."

North waved his had dismisivly. "Bah, is nothing. Anything for the children."

The White Rabbit nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, yes, I'm sure they'll be please. I will go inform them at once."

The Rabbit scurried away towards the Pale Realm to do just that.

"And now the Dollmaker will no longer be a threat to Wonderland," said the Cheshire Cat with a smug grin. "A happy ending all around."

Tooth could no longer contain her curiosity and flew over to the two teens. "Were you two really Jay and Lis?"

They nodded, and Tooth squealed with joy. She wrapped them both in a hug. "I missed you both! I mean, I've seen you since, and Jack you're ours, and I should have known you from your teeth, but I didn't know it was you! I'm so happy and-!"

"Tooth, we need to breathe, and so do you," Jack gasped as Tooth crushed his windpipe.

She let them go. "Sorry," she said sheepishly. Then she grinned at Alice. "You have to come to my palace sometime soon. I loved our talks, and over the years I've acquired a lot more swords and knives I want you to see."

Alice remembered how she had enjoyed her talks with Toothiana as well, so she agreed.

"That is terrifying," muttered Jack to himself, and the other males all nodded in agreement.

Sandy drew attention to himself and made a sand clock spinning backwards.

"Sandy's right. How did you get back in time, anyway?" asked Bunny. "Tha's what I wanna know."

"The Dollmaker went after Time," explained Alice simply. "He has a mirror that can send you though time."

"What I don't understand is why it sent us to the North Pole in you guys' past," said Jack.

"The mirror isn't so fickle as Time himself," said the Cat. "Whomsoever touches its surface first chooses its destination. When two touch it at the same time, a mix of wishes occurs."

The Cat vanished and left them to chew on that piece of information.

Thinking back to when they went through the mirror, Jack said, "We both went through the mirror first at the same time. When we did, I think I was thinking about how I wished the other Guardians were there to help us stop that guy."

"I was wanting to go back before Bumby put that filth in my head, so it would have never happened," Alice admitted ruefully.

"And vhen your vishes combined," said North putting his hands together for emphasis. "It came out, 'I vish I could go back in time to the Guardians, in order to stop the Dollmaker.' Vorked out nicely, yes."

Alice nodded a bit. "Yes I suppose it did."

Jack slipped his hand into hers. "I don't regret it," he said.

Alice graced him with a small smile, and wrapped her fingers around his.

"This calls for celebration!" cheered North in excitement. "Ve all go back to Pole to celebrate. I vill also contact Ombric, Nightlight, and Mother Goose. They have all vaited to meet you two again as vell."

When North wanted to have a party, it was hard to say no. So they all made their way back to the rabbit hole.

As they went, Jack turned to Bunny and asked, "So, I see you finally got that stick removed."

It took a few seconds for the joke to click. By the time it did, Jack was already racing away, laughing his head off.

The Pooka let out an enraged growl, and bounded after the winter spirit, shouting insults at him as he went.

The rest of Guardians laughed at the familiar antics of their comrades. And as she watched, surrounded by friends, Alice couldn't help but feel her heart lift like it hadn't in over a century.

For the first time in nearly one hundred and fifty years, Alice Liddell laughed.

*A*A*A*

A/N And that's my story. Was it good, was it bad, please let me know in the comments. Either way this is my contribution to the Ice Tea ship.

Special thanks to Scorpiofreak, for inspiring me to write this, and helping me edit it as I went.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._


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